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I initially came across fast 5 about a year ago while I was at Uni, my girlfriend at the time had not-so-kindly pointed out I had developed quite the gut, harsh but unfortunately very true - I'd been denying it for months but the gorging on junk food and complete lack of portion control was taking its heavy toll. I'm around 5'9 and I was weighing in at about 85 kg, and it most certainly wasn't mainly muscle.
I've always had a problem with getting into shape, I'm in my 20s and have never been overweight and not very good at sports - hence motivation to lose it through exercise is minimal. I'm also a huge foodie, I love cooking and experimenting with food, so I didn't want to cut out whole food groups etc. I also know I have quite a voracious appetite in general, so I knew that any kind of portion restriction wouldn't work. When I came across Fast 5 I couldn't believe my luck, it genuinely seemed far too good to be true! my friends didn't understand it, they thought it was dangerous and unhealthy and thought it made no sense. Luckily, I'm kinda stubborn, and decided to try it out.
It was a real struggle at the start, as I said I was at university, people eating all sorts of rubbish around me at all hours, temptation everywhere! But I felt like this was my only lifeline so I stuck with it, and binged out for the first couple weeks in my eating window. God am I glad I did! In about 4 months I lost near 15 kg, coming in at just below 70 kg - everyone had noticed how much better I looked! Not only that but I LOVED my lifestyle! I thought it'd be hard giving up the food but I suddenly realised how Fast 5 is PERFECT for food lovers! It really makes eating something special, something you look forward to all day - this means you put a lot of thought into what you're going to eat, you don't end up eating something rubbish and boring because you want to reward yourself for fasting all day! I was so full of energy, spending a hell of a lot less on food but still enjoying my dinner hugely! There were literally no negative effects for me, I became a convert since then and have waxed lyrical about it to everyone! It really is a lifestyle and not a diet, and it's SO much better now having a dozy afternoon after committing carbicide at lunch! Also I loved the flexibility - it didn't throw me off if I had a day I ate early or late, in fact I even treated myself to breakfast every now and then!
Unfortunately, end of University exams finished (it was easy to stay disciplined during exam time because I had strict timetables) and end of University partying began. My complete lack of routine and me reaching my desired weight meant I took my eye off the ball and slipped back into normal habits. I was trying to eat healthy but not too concerned. Then I started working full time and it just didn't seem feasible!
However, since I moved on from my last job and am still searching for the perfect role, I decided I could do with a self esteem boost and have as of this week started up on Fast 5 again. I've not gone back to my old weight not have I been totally gorging out until now but I've decided that I have to commit again if I want to go beyond my initial desired weight (which was more about losing the majority of the gut) and get a really GOOD body! Plus I reckon if I get myself through the adjustment period while I'm not working and get properly stuck in now, it'll be easier to keep it up once I start working full time again!
I'm around 72 kg at the moment, I'm not looking exactly at my weight because this time I know it works and I'm more concerned about how I LOOK. I'm about 3 days in, it's been tougher to get back to it than I thought it'd be, I've been drinking a LOT of diet coke, and my windows have been closer to 6 hours than 5 - but I haven't been binging as hard as I did the last time and I'm excited about getting that Fast 5 feeling back!
Hopefully this time I'll get it done properly and really stick with it!
Thank you SO SO much to Bert Herring for bringing this into my life, and for making it available free for everyone! You're seriously awesome dude!
Sorry everyone for the massively long post, if I get any replies or anything I'll assume you guys are interested and I'll keep you posted with results!
Hey ljey -
I'd love to hear how your doing. I too am about 3 days into this lifestyle and it keeps me motivated reading how everyone else is coming along. You say your not so worried about the weight as you are you appearance, but will you be weighing in or measuring weekly? I find measuring my progress by clothes too difficult and I can't weigh in only once weekly so I faithfully weigh myself every morning, naked, after going to the bathroom. As of today, day 3, I'm down 3 pounds. Likely all water weight, but a loss is a loss.
Hi Toni!
Brilliant, well I will keep telling you all about it then! Congratulations on starting by the way, it's a great decision I promise you that! What I mean is rather than clothes I just want to lose the spare tyre, have a bit more of a toned look. I do keep weighing myself every now and then, I'm hoping to get to 65kgs by the end of may! But I'm not too fussed about particulars is what I mean - I'm pretty laid back about it because I've done it before for 5 or 6 months and know it works, I'm just sticking to it and am confident the results will come, which helps so much with the motivational factor of it!
Water weight is the worst! One piece of advice if you insist on weighing in daily, don't be disheartened! It's so much easier to see the results if you only do it once a week because the water weight goes up and down - it can also give you false confidence which can be dangerous because you might start slipping! Best of luck, stay focussed and my suggestion is really make sure you savour your food when you do eat! I look forward to my eating window every day and it's a total reward for me!
How much are you looking to lose?
So far so good! I\'m looking to lose about 25 lbs, which is about 11 kg I think? When I was in Colombia we measured everything that way and it make me feel so much smaller! ;) I find this to be so much easier for me than any other diet because half of the work is done while I\'m asleep and I don\'t have to plan what I eat whatsoever. The book talks about binging in the first few weeks to overcompensate for the 19 hour fast. How are you doing with that? Personally, I get so full right away from having an empty stomach that I think I eat less when my window opens. When you did it for 5 or six months before, what kind of success did you have?
Ahh ok, that\'s a similar amount to how much I lost on my first go with Fast-5! Haha, yyeah but when you measure how much you\'ve lost in pounds it makes you feel like you\'ve lost more! Exactly, it\'s so easy to adapt to your lifestyle that\'s the best part! I\'m doing alright this time around, the first time because I was going from the standard 3 meals a day straight to the 5 hour window I felt CONSTANTLY hungry in my 5 hour window, this time, it\'s better - but I still find myself eating a lot - but then again I\'ve always had quite a big appetite! As I say, I lost between 12-15kg (so something like 25-30 lbs) so it was really successful! After the first couple of months I was so happy with myself I found myself being motivated to go to the gym too, and because I did mainly weight lifting at the gym I packed on a bit of muscle too, so the amount of fat I lost is probably higher than 12-15 kg! So, how have you been finding it so far? I was a bit naughty this weekend and broke my window, but I\'m not too worried because I know this is the sort of diet where small blips like that aren\'t the end of the world! I\'m going to be very good to make up for it this week though!
Hi Ljey & Toni!
Im so glad people are starting to post on here more actively. Its really fun and helpful to share our experiences and relate regarding IF and specifically FAST 5. Ive been doing this for 1 month now, my eating window is 2-7 pm and Ive lost 6.4 lbs (apx 3 kg). Ljey, in your first time doing Fast-5 was there anytime when your weight loss slowed down or plateaued? Toni I also weigh myself daily in the morn, and I record the weight when I see a loss so that I can track my weight loss. Of course there are days that the weight goes up, but I dont get discouraged about that. I only let myself get happy about loses. :) Im also taking measurements but every few weeks or when I feel like it.
Oops, I clicked the wrong reply button and my response is at the top of the page! Sorry...
Hi Lionempress!
Yeah it's nice cos it keeps you motivated too knowing other people are doing it. I did find it a bit of a struggle at first because my friends/family simply didn't understand it, so I didn't tell too many people about it because I found they got quite judge-y about it. I only told the people I thought would understand.
Congrats on the weightloss so far though, sounds like you're well on the way! How much are you hoping to lose over all?
I did notice by the end I was plateauing a bit, from what I've read in nutrition part of the problem might be your body gets settled into the routine, but I'm not sure if that would be the case. Have a look on some of the other sections of the forum though for Problems/Plateau posts, I'm sure someone more experienced would be able to help!
Toni, I've not had much noticeable weight-loss because I'm still a bit in my binge period - as I mentioned before I have a huge appetite so I know I'm eating quite a lot and that will eventually decrease, but I am looking a bit trimmer which is always great! I'm surprised you say you don't drink during the fasting period - first of all I drink a LOT because I find it helps keep me feeling full and dulls the hunger, second of all I think it's not very healthy and could have some more serious implications when combined with the fasting - I don't think it'll be sustainable so I'd recommend increasing the amount of water/fluids you take in during the day! But again, I'm no expert!
Yes, I'm trying to drink more water, or diet soda, or anything at all. I feel like when I drink liquids, it gets my stomach and guts moving and therefore triggers my hunger, but it's all psychological. I've always had a problem drinking enough. My *official* weigh in day for week one was yesterday and I was down 2.4 lbs for the week. Can't complain with that!
Ljey - I think it's interesting that you are aware that you have a binge phase and are confident that it will naturally decrease. I've been very consciously trying NOT to binge and do well when I think about it, but when I don't think about it that's when I tend to eat more than I should.
You certainly can't great work! Yeah I see what you mean, but the thing with both the fluids and the binge phase is you have to think Long-Term with Fast 5! Going from standard eating to 5 hours is a HUGE change for the body to adapt to, and the bingeing allows you to counteract that a little bit, making it easier to adjust into it. As you steadily eat in a smaller time period your stomach will naturally shrink, as I say this happened to me the last time, and it wasn't even an effort for me not to binge, I just ate what I felt like eating and naturally felt full!
If you want to adopt F5 as a full on lifestyle like I do you need to make it as easy for you as possible. At the moment you're limiting yourself a lot, which shows great self restraint, but this is also the reason why a lot of diets fail for people, they're trying to hold themselves back too much; when they slip up they become very demotivated and stop the diet all together.
To reiterate a very important point, the beauty of fast-5 is once you commit to it everything is very natural, so just go with your gut (literally!) during the 5 hour window! If you wanna eat, EAT! If you're worried about the binging then try and binge on healthier foods - so rather than pizzas go for lean meats and low GI carbs, but don't try and consciously limit your eating during the window or you'll make it harder for yourself. As long as you stick to the 5 hours you'll naturally lose weight at a steady healthy pace and have a smaller appetite as time goes on.
I normally ate more than most of my housemates at university, but by the time I was 3 months into Fast-5 I felt physically ill at the thought of eating as much food as they did! So what I'd recommend is focussing on getting to the breaking fast time as comfortably as possible and everything will come naturally!
I am totally in agreement Ljey! Toni, do you like tea? I've been drinking lots of water and tea during my fast. Before I was IFing I had trouble drinking enough liquids. Now I'm consuming more and I'm really happy about that. It really helps immensely. Plus you need to stay hydrated in order to flush out any unwanted fat/toxins.
I've been doing well... I hope I dont repeat myself since I dont remember what I wrote last. I just eat until I'm full in my eating window, and if I want a treat I have one in moderation in the window. There are days that I eat more than others, but on average I eat regular size portions. Ljey, I'm looking to lose another ~22 lbs...
I am now losing apx 1 lb a week with minimal exercise, but I'm hoping to get back to exercising and perhaps I will lose more with that. I'm actually satisfied with 1 lb a week, but I want to be active and make that a habit. If I lose more than 1 lb I'll be ecstatic. I just hope I won't plateau anytime soon... not until I get closer to my goal at least.
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