I had read Melanie Avalon's first version of What When Wine and found Gin's podcast with her. I have a 4 hour drive to work each week and started listening. I was hooked by the time I made it to work. I wanted to jump in with both feet. If you normally eat every 3–4 hours and then suddenly shrink your eating period to an 8-hour window, you’ll likely feel hungry all the time and discouraged. “Some people quit if they start out by fasting for too many hours without an adjustment period from a previous eating style,” says Krista Varady, PhD, associate professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of “The Every-Other-Day Diet.” It may take 10 days to two weeks until you stop feeling hungry when you’re fasting.

Community - Gin Stephens, author and intermittent faster Community - Gin Stephens, author and intermittent faster

When I was old enough to be interested in boys and care what I looked like, I assumed the responsibility for my own dieting. Through high school, I’d yo-yo between 120 and 135 (115 would have been ideal for my frame); in college, it was between 120 and 160. By the time I married at age 25, I was up to 200. It was the usual story. Get hooked on a particular diet, lose 30 pounds, get to the unsustainable point and gain 45. By age 34, I was up to 225 and feeling pretty desperate...didn’t seem like there was anything new to try. And then I learned about self-hypnosis. Long story short: after 777 days, a first year of 20:4 IF and a second year of mostly <2 hour eating windows, I attained my goal of losing 100 pounds. I was welcomed by hundreds of people with open arms. My first post received over 500 reactions and over 200 comments with useful advice and encouraging comments. I was hooked. Not only to the group, but to fasting as well.

Subscribe

I followed advice from Gin and her team of moderators on the FB groups and the outpouring of moral support from others, to venture into OMAD and break my plateau. I lost all the weight that I hoped to, and a bit more that I never dreamed I could. I never thought I’d live to see my belly shrink before my eyes, but it has. It took me several months to realize that my diabetes was showing its TRUE colors. Yet, I was clueless to what my next step would be. My list of struggles was endless. Not only did I cry each day, but I made everyone around me cry as well. The picture functionality is so much better. They don't get cut off when you post them and you can also easily add multiple photos or images to any one post. I was already doing the old calorie in calorie out diet (had just started) and thought "I can do this and it is much easier".

Delay, Don’t Deny | The Fast Solution Delay, Don’t Deny | The Fast Solution

With intermittent fasting I get to choose my results and I choose to take care of my body. I want to live a long healthy life. I love healthy food – foods that offer me strength, health, nutrition, and mental clarity. Foods that keep my agency intact. I love intermittent fasting because I gained self-control, self-discipline, a body of health, and a passion for life. I can eat without gaining weight because I am not overindulging all day. I feel like my body was never designed to eat all day long, my digestive system needs that break! Using fat for a fuel source is genius – I have never had this much energy! I love my body. I even love taking care of my body. I feel like I am communing with God when I exercise. Previously exercise was a “bad word”. Try exercising while holding 100 pounds of cement – it is miserable!!! But now, I love to take care of my body.I still eat carbs. I still have dessert (though I try to not do it as often). There is no forbidden food. The only limitation of this lifestyle is the time-- limit the number of hours in which I consume food. I'm 5'9" and always been "big boned" with an obese/overweight BMI. My highest weight was 192lbs in October 2016 and I've lost less than 20lbs since starting IF a year ago. I've always weighed "a lot," but that doesn't make it any easier to still have a BMI in the overweight range despite my commitment to clean fasting since day 1. For many, that small amount of loss would be a reason to quit. I quit weighing myself about a month ago (July 2017) and was down about 40 lbs. at that point. I currently am wearing a 38 waist jean and they are getting looser! I haven't felt this good since my 20s, seriously. I am no longer easily winded when I ride and have cut 5 minutes off of my bike commute to work! OMAD has been a miracle to me, allowing me to enjoy food (which I do) without guilt. No calorie, fat grams, or carb grams to count. If there was, I wouldn't do it. Period. I tend to be the kid who would be up the tree he was told to stay away from 5 minutes ago, and that inner rebel has persisted into middle age. Tell me I can't eat it and I will shove it into my pie hole while looking you right in the face, lol.