This will be a really, really long post 🙂
I would like to invite people to write their ‘six months on this WoE’ stories here as well. Back in January, as a newbie, I loved to read results and tip & tricks and that’s the main reason I’m writing this post. To encourage people to start this WoE, as I am so, so happy and thankful I’ve stumbled upon Fast 800. It really changed my life. Yes, this may sound mushy but it really did. 🙂 And I am so grateful for the people on this forum, for sharing their experiences, sources and recipes, gently nudging people in the right direction or giving them a kick in the behind when necessary (and asked for). I’ve never seen a forum with such gentle people, even when disagreeing, people stay respectful and I’ve never seen judgmental comments, just total understanding and advice. I love that about this place.
Okay, so my results. I’m writing this exactly 6 months after starting on January 6th, 2020. I started with a BMI of 34.3 and now I’m at 25.7. I’m female, 44, 1m82 tall, just under 6 foot,
Starting weight: 113.6 kilo = nearly 18 stone
Now: 85 kilo =13 stone 5 lbs
Discarded: 28.6 kilo = 4 stone 7 lbs
Please check my profile to see how much I discarded per week (in kilo)
Weight is just one thing, I have also used a tape measure to measure myself before I started and repeated every two weeks. My waist to height ratio went from 0.55 to 0.45.
Thigh: 73 cm → 62 cm, minus 11 cm (4.3 inch)
Hip: 127 → 110 cm, minus 17 cm (6.7 inch)
Waist: 100 → 83 cm, minus 17 cm (6.7 inch)
<b>How? </b>
Well, good question. First you need the mental ‘click’, I suppose people on this forum already had this or are close to it. Can’t really help with that, but I do know it needs to come from within. YOU want to change your way of eating and you need to know WHY. Although thinking and formulating my WHY came in a later stage for me, again, helped by posts on this forum. Second, its good to understand the principles about the fast 800, I had no clue what I was doing, I didn’t start to read and listen to podcasts and interviews till I was 3 months in. For me, the Jason Fung talk that JGwen posted was a real eye opener, it’s here https://youtu.be/tIuj-oMN-Fk
Over the last 6 months I gradually came to realise this is not a diet. I started out thinking it is something I could do for however long was necessary and then go back to normal eating. At one point I told my OH I would continue eating normally forever. He was slightly confused and then we both realised I meant low carb. Breakthrough! Lowcarb IS normal now! Even with snaxidents I eat low carb, those carbs are not, in any way, ever enticing any more.
My final breakthrough was a few weeks ago. Something weird happened, I had my normal lunch with salad, felt it wasn’t enough and started making scrambled eggs with salmon. Somehow, I ate the entire package of salmon, 200 grams. Then I went back for Greek yoghurt with coconut flakes, raspberries and pecan. And again. And I took a handful of pecans. And again. And again, and again. I was sitting in front of the telly, just eating out of boredom? Unhappiness? I have no clue but I just kept going. After a while I felt like a stranded whale. I was stretched out on the couch, not able to move, feeling so, so full. SO full. After a few hours I felt slightly better and I needed to think about dinner with OH. But I took something from the freezer and told him, change of plans. I sat with him at the table, looking how he had dinner and still felt full. I put everything in my app, it turned out I ate 2300 cals!!! No wonder I was feeling full! I went to bed , still not hungry, and woke up feeling normal and OK and had lunch at my normal time, around 12:30. How crazy/bad/weird this was, it was a very useful experience at the same time. My satiety hormones clearly work again, albeit a bit late. I feel this was broken, before I would have been able to have dinner as well, for sure. But now I feel I’m ‘fixed’, my body functions as intended. This helps going into maintenance, I stopped counting calories since a few weeks and I’m way more aware of those satiety signals. I can stop eating when full, even if I really like what’s on my plate and really want to finish, I just don’t.
<b>Tips & tricks</b>
This is what worked for me, but I can imagine it works differently for everyone.
When you start, make an effort to keep under (or close to) 800 cals and 20 grams of net carbs. I truly believe this is a key element for ‘shocking’ your body, loosing visceral fat, but also mentally: discarding weight is so motivating! Plus, you learn portion control, what to eat, all your options and I suppose this will help once you enter the maintenance phase.
– Plan your meals in advance. I usually planned my dinner the night before so I knew how much cals/carbs I could take for lunch and perhaps breakfast. I used an app to track my macros, I also kept an eye on protein and fat.
– Time Restricted Eating: after a few weeks I just ate two meals a day, sometimes just one. After my first round of 8 weeks, I experimented with longer fasts and did a few 40-44 hours and one 48 hour fast.
– After a snaxident, try not to think “this whole day is lost so now I can do whatever” but try to get back on plan right away, or as soon as you can. And, perhaps more important: don’t beat yourself up. Someone on the forum wrote what she says to herself: “well, I will buy that that dress in a smaller size one day later, it will be a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday”. I love that mindset.
– When you struggle, watch some Jason Fung or dr Cywes videos. They will cheer you up, remind you of what you’re doing and why. Brush you teeth. Go out for a walk if you can. Read and post something on this forum, even if you feel you are just nagging or complaining, its OK. We all know how it feels.
– Really try to listen to your body, its talking all the time. Salt is important, especially in the early weeks. Bread contains salt, you usually cook rice and potatoes with salt, so your salt intake probably is a lot lower, while at the same time you need more when you let go of the glycogen. I’ve been trough a few weird cravings over the last 6 months, for a few weeks I just wanted green asparagus all the time. Every day, if possible. Salmon has been a big thing every now and then. Currently I’m in the cured ham phase. I just go with the flow, eat whatever my body is telling me to. And it worked 🙂
– Batch cooking. I’ve done this a lot, making 8 litre of soup or 10 portions of pasta sauce. Real handy to have meals in the freezer.
– Don’t worry if the scales don’t reflect your good days immediately, I’ve noticed I felt ‘thinner’ e.g. bones poking trough suddenly somewhere and the scales only followed a week or so later.
– Write down how you feel in your app, it is very useful to check if there is a certain food you’ve had when you feel bloated or less energetic.
Problems with this WoE. The main problem for me is hair loss. I have a normal amount but quite thin hair, it seems even thinner and I’m loosing hair like crazy. After a few months, it started, then it was OK for a few months and now its really bad again, I’m not bold or anything, but my ponytail is getting really thin. I’ll wait a few weeks and then see if I need extra vitamins or something. The other nuisance is going to the loo. I used to go everyday, but now I’m not as regular any more and I feel sometimes a bit constipated. Nothing mayor, but just annoying. I now take physillium husk.
After 6 month basically non-stop on the Fast800 I feel its time to move to maintenance. I’m a bit scared stopping with counting and weighing but I trust my body and my ability to listen to it. I will weigh every other day or so, and allow a 2 kilo wriggle room. If I weigh 2 kilos extra a few days in a row, I’ll open my “tool box”, weigh and measure everything for a few days and put a few days of 800 in. Or go on a 48 hour fast. Or go for 2 weeks on fast 800. Or .. whatever I feel like. I feel in control of my weight, for the very first time in my life. I haven’t been at this weight as an adult, ever. Now the challenge is to keep it off. We will see how this goes.
“Nothing tastes as good as feeling healthy”.
Kate Moss originally said this with ‘skinny’ instead of healthy but I like this much better.
I can go on forever, but will stop for now. Good job on reading all the way to the end 🙂
xxx DD
