nzmegs - hoping this one works

Well, today is my first day of a full OMAD. I have been doing 16/8 for a few days and already lost a couple of pounds. My starting weight today is 15 Stone and 11 pounds or around 221 pounds (I think!). But that isn't my heaviest. I began this at 16 St 2. and few months ago. Lost about a stone and then put some on - ending up at my current weight.

My history shows a chequered past with dieting. Always on a diet, weight you yo-ing between 10 Stone and 16 stone and huge amounts of research into why I can't ever seem to stick to it. I know I lose best when on a low carb option and keto has always worked very well for me. However, I know that controlling my blood sugars and insulin release is very important due to my insulin resistance.

Of course I have a goal and that is to get within my BMI range - however to be honest, anywhere within the 12 Stone range would suit me.

I'm one of the strange ones who actually likes her body as it is. I truly do. but I don't like the aches and pains, the sore feet, the dodgy knees, the lack of fitness. I'm happy to stay looking the same and lose all of those symptoms. But it doesn't work like that! I have to lose the weight and so, I will.

So I will be killing time this afternoon shopping for my evening meal. Sweet potato, vegetables, berries and some kind of meat. I also drink a lot of milk (usually a pint a day). So will break my fast each day with a huge glass of full fat milk.

There's a good chance I will write here regularly. it is motivating to me and so I hope you are all happy to read. In the past I have kept very detailed diaries while on weight loss plans and I'm told it is motivating for others too.
 
Hello, @nzmegs , and welcome to the forum ! It sounds like we both have around the same amount of weight to lose, so we can be supporting each other as we go through this exciting journey together.
Like you, I have tried just about every diet, and always gained back the weight. This time, I think that I have found an eating plan that I can live with for as long as it takes, and use to manage my weight after that.
Are you following any special kind of eating plan, like low carb, vegan, or just eating one meal a day of whatever you feel like eating ?
 
hello @Happyflowerlady thank you for the welcome. I'm a bit of a nutrition obsessive - I know way too much about all this stuff! But always happy to learn more (and be put right). How long have you been eating this way - is it working for you?

I try to stick to a low carb eating plan most of the time (but have been known to have sugar binges). Sticking to a strict window will help me to avoid those times when I am likely to eat out of boredom. I don't eat rice, pasta, bread, potatoes or anything white and starchy.

To start with though, I am allowing myself to have whatever I feel like as my evening meal. Just until I get used to it. The funny thing is that all I am thinking about is delicious vegetables, milk and meats. I don't want sweets at all.

Tonight's meal is sausages, mashed carrot and parsnip, boiled cabbage with butter and broccoli (with gravy). I'll also have some full fat Greek yogurt and raspberries and wash it all down with a large glass of milk. I'm yet to add this the MyfitnessPal to see how many calories, but I expect around 1500.
 
first meal... well. I added up the calories of the main meal and the milk and it is only around 1000 calories. I still have the Greek yogurt and berries to go, but I am absolutely stuffed. I don't think I can eat it.

I still have 40 mins until the end of the hour, so Ill see how I go.

Should I eat even if I can't? Is 1000 Cal's too low?
 
I do keep track of my food intake, but I don’t worry about it, @nzmegs . I use an app called Carbmanager (I tried my fitness pal and hated it), and it tracks all of the macros, plus all of the nutrients in each food. Since I have an iPhone, it syncs with the Health app on the phone, just like my Apple Watch does, and the Health app gives me everything all on one place.
I usually have around 1000 calories, but it can vary by quite a bit from day to day, and I try to do that so that my body doesn’t expect to get the same amount of food at the same time each day, and program itself for that.
I am just starting my second month of this way of eating, although I have also been eating low carb for a long time. It just wasn’t helping enough, even with the exercising; so then I read about intermittent fasting and started doing that, and that just settled into OMAD very quickly.
 
I am encouraged whenever I would read progress reports like this. However, I feel a bit confused whenever I would see the counting of calories. I admit that I don’t know anything about calories and my concern is just my weight although I understand that it is related to calories. I would rather focus on the kind of food because there is no limit in the amount that we can eat during the window period.
 
I agree about calories. To be honest I just count them because I am curious to see how much I'm eating in one sitting and as I am going low carb, I am also counting carbs. I was also worried I might end up not eating enough. If you don't feel comfortable with calorie counting definitely don't do it. Just follow the one plate rule.

Today has been good so far. It is mid afternoon and I have had 2 cups of tea. My daughter and I both had free tea and cake vouchers for a local place and she wanted to use them. I agreed that she can have my free cake. I drank the tea and we brought the 2 cakes home. I asked her to slice a small piece off the end of each of them so I can taste test them as part of my meal this evening. I don't feel like I missed out - because I have just delayed it. I will leave that part of my meal until the very end and will think carefully about whether I want to eat these small slices (they really are small). But I know that it's not the end of the world if I do.

So this evening my dinner will be a venison steak burger, a high fibre nut and grain salad with dressing and maybe some broccoli with butter. If I have the cake I'll forgo the Greek yogurt and berries. I need to input this into MyfitnessPal and see how it looks nutritionally.
 
I am encouraged whenever I would read progress reports like this. However, I feel a bit confused whenever I would see the counting of calories. I admit that I don’t know anything about calories and my concern is just my weight although I understand that it is related to calories. I would rather focus on the kind of food because there is no limit in the amount that we can eat during the window period.

I think that what most people are concerned about here, is eating enough calories, @Corzhens , and not about having too many, like most diets require. I don’t really worry about the calories, because I usually eat enough in the one meal, but not overeat because I am then full.
Fasting is not the same as starving, because we are in control of what we eat and when; but when we are fasting, then we are actually burning our body fat as fuel, so it is not like the body is going without a regular fuel supply.
Most of us have enough fat to sustain us for at least a month, and not do damage to our body, so going overnight without food is not a problem at all.
When you do not eat food with a lot of carbs, then you don’t over-produce insulin, and so you seldom get hungry. Even so, hunger comes in waves, not constant, so if you just distract your thoughts when you do have a hunger wave, it soon disappears.
 
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Exactly ! But the nice thing is that you have a choice, and when you do not have the cake, it is because you decided not to eat it, and not because we are on a diet that forbids it.
That is one of the things that I love best about this diet. Since you can choose to have whatever food you want, you really don’t fall off of the diet, some days I just make better choices than I do on other days.
 
Last nights meal was good. I ate the cake - but hey... I made a conscious choice to eat more slowly and allow the meal to take around 45 minutes. That helped with being able to eat it all and my digestion.

I haven't had anything at all this morning - not even water. I just got stuck in with work. But about to make a coffee.

I am around 2 pounds down already. Pound a day - not bad
 
Got through the day, no problem. Three coffees, each with a little milk. (this doesn't seem to affect me).

I was really very hungry around 2 hours before eating time. But I still managed it quite easily. In fact, I recognised I could have had my meal early if I wanted, so I started cooking and that distraction completely took my mind off it.

My evening meal was a whole baked sweet potato, around a cup of cooked cabbage with butter, 2 fried eggs and then a "dessert" of porridge (oatmeal) made with whole milk, raspberries, peanut butter and a little sugar.

The calories come in at about 1000 and around 90 carbs. That's more than Id like and the protein is quite low. But once again I am very full. It really is a struggle to eat enough... once again I have lost more weight overnight. That's really encouraging. I'm now down 3.5 pounds in the last 5 days
 
It sounds like you are doing everything right, Meg, since you are feeling good, eating comfortably, and losing weight. I don’t see what is the big thing about having enough calories, when what we are trying to do is fast and burn off our own fat for calories. I can see not eating too much, because then we would simply be burning off the calories from the food we eat and not our own fat.
There has been mentioned about people who were able to fast for many months (under doctor supervision) when they were grossly overweight, and all they did was drink water and take a multivitamin.
Some days , I just have a salad and less than 500 calories, and other days, I will have some kind of protein and veggies, and it will be closer to 1000 calories, especially when it has high-fat foods like an avocado as part of the meal.
 
Last nights meal was good. I ate the cake - but hey... I made a conscious choice to eat more slowly and allow the meal to take around 45 minutes. That helped with being able to eat it all and my digestion.

I haven't had anything at all this morning - not even water. I just got stuck in with work. But about to make a coffee.

I am around 2 pounds down already. Pound a day - not bad

Good for you. I've read that eating slowly helps us to better digest what we've eaten. Eating too fast makes us feel lethargic and possibly slows down our digestion. Well, it's okay. Just know where you're at. Sometimes the cake wins. But eventually you'll be able to resist desserts like that more frequently. :)
 
Just always keep track of the food intake you are getting. To make sure and to know how the much food or elements you are letting your body take. But if you feel that you are full then don't force it. Eating too much may be a bad habit.
 
Got through the day, no problem. Three coffees, each with a little milk. (this doesn't seem to affect me).

I was really very hungry around 2 hours before eating time. But I still managed it quite easily. In fact, I recognised I could have had my meal early if I wanted, so I started cooking and that distraction completely took my mind off it.

My evening meal was a whole baked sweet potato, around a cup of cooked cabbage with butter, 2 fried eggs and then a "dessert" of porridge (oatmeal) made with whole milk, raspberries, peanut butter and a little sugar.

The calories come in at about 1000 and around 90 carbs. That's more than Id like and the protein is quite low. But once again I am very full. It really is a struggle to eat enough... once again I have lost more weight overnight. That's really encouraging. I'm now down 3.5 pounds in the last 5 days

How did your weekend go, @nzmegs ?
My scale seems to fluctuate up a pound and then back down a pound, but it just is not moving very fast at all. I did a 51 hour fast last week, and it actually was as easy as just doing the 20-23 that I usually do, so I am thinking that I might do this at least once a week until I can get that silly scales to start moving again.
Have you tried a longer fast at all ?
 
Back again - I have actually stuck to OMAD completely and it's all going well. Even on the weekend when I went out for dinner with a friend. I just kept to eating within the 1-2 hour window, didn't worry too much about the calories and had fun. I did have a drink or two and felt really rotten on sunday. I'm guessing alcohol is likely to be more effective and give more of a hangover...

I think it has been about a week now. I'm sitting on about a 3.5 pound loss. That's OK. I am sure that as I commit more to not eating so many carbs those pounds will continue to fall. But one thing I have noticed is that there has not been a single day where my weight has gone up. It has either dropped or been stable.

That is really encouraging.

I've gotten into a routine with my day. Coffee with a splash of milk to start at about 9am, then work quite intensively until I start to fade (usually around 2pm) then I have another coffee or tea and rest for the afternoon. This is the time when the hunger pangs are at their worst, so I distract myself with doing something fun or relaxing. I start cooking at about 5 or 5.30pm and aim to eat between 6pm and 7pm (with a little leeway).

I work for myself and have found that was am working really well in the mornings - with clarity and focus. I'm a writer, so I need other be creative and disciplined. If I work for a period of 4 hours or so, I can get all my work done for the day. usually this would take me all day.

Hope everyone else is coping ok :)
 
That is awesome, Megs, and it sounds like you have got a good plan going ! Mine is similar, except that I try and have my meal in the middle of the day, so my eating window is anywhere between 11-3. It depends on what my schedule is and when I get back home from swimming, because after swimming is when I generally have my meal and then my body can start to rebuild .
I have been (bit by bit) reading through the blog posts on the main page of this website, and there are some really good tips that help me to stay focused better, and I have been learning from them also.
Plus, we have a lot of good conversation topics going on here in the forum, and I enjoy reading those posts and contributing as well.
It is cold here today, and it has started me thinking that I want to maybe try the bone broth idea while fasting. We have had a hot summer, and it has been way too hot to thing about drinking broth; but fall is coming, and hot drinks like that will be good on this WOE when it gets chilly.
 
Two weeks - and still going strong. I've not given in at all, although on a couple of days my eating window has stretched to around 2 hours - just because of circumstances.

I've been making good choices, mostly. But I have also been allowing myself to have the foods I really want.

I am currently (15st 6) 216 pounds. So that is a loss 5 pounds in 2 weeks. I know that there are ways I could lose more than this and more quickly. but that wouldn't allow me to eat the foods I enjoy. As long as the weight loss stays consistent I will keep doing what I am doing.

Now that this is a habit, I am feeling quite at ease for most of the day. I admit that when 5pm comes along I am well and truly ready to eat. I don't actually even consider myself to be hungry until at least 2pm - then the niggles start. What I know is that I must be in a fat burning state for most of the day after I wake, so that feels really good.

I am definitely smaller - my stomach especially. That may not be reflected on the scales, but I can feel it.

I am thinking of pushing the fasting a little more to stretch out to like 30 hours once or twice a week. What does everyone think of that?
 
From what I have seen other people saying , doing the longer fast once or twice a week is supposed to be a good thing. I have been thinking about starting this, too, or at least just having a very small meal on one of the days, like a plain salad. This way, I can feel like I ate something, but it should digest pretty fast, not like a full meal with proteins and fats would do.
Possibly broth might work , too. If that turns out to be something that I can do, then I would try goin for a straight longer fast, and see if it helps with the weight loss, and how my energy level stays.
I have been pretty much eating the same way that you are, Megs. I try to stick with just natural , healthy foods; but still have some foods that I really enjoy eating as well, even if just in a small quantity, in the eating window.
Plus, I have been reading about how autophagy can get rid of the excess skin flab after you lose the underlying fat. If the weight loss is at a slow and stead pace, then the excess skin should come off at a similar pace.
 
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