^^My husband also has the issue of getting hungry after 7. We do try and watch tv in the basement at night so he can’t see the kitchen, which reminds him of food, which makes him hungry…
He’ll drink flavored fizzy water (like la croix), and sometimes that will be enough to get him over the hump. It doesn’t have any sweetener in it (we’re both re-calibrating our taste buds to not crave so much sweet or salt). I’ve noticed that I start to crave stuff that is more vegetable and meat based when I’m hungry, as opposed to sweet or salty stuff, which is interesting.
For me personally, the only thing that works is very low carb. Family history of diabetes has rendered me unable to process carbs the way “normal people” do, though I am not diabetic myself.
The problem is that very low carb is extremely hard to maintain. I can give up sweets, but I love rice and other grains, potatoes, and cracker type foods. I want toast with my eggs and tomato slices. Turkey and cheese wrapped in a large lettuce leaf is NOT a sandwich!
I have a hard time totally forgoing really good bread. The junky processed stuff is easy, but homemade or fresh bakery bread often calls my name! And, like Oprah, I like bread. For me, dieting cannot require a major sacrifice. It needs to be a shift in eating patterns and habits, so that it is a lifestyle change. Summertime is easier as I love fresh summer fruits, but when Talenti gelato goes on sale… I have trouble.
I also do find fruit smoothies that I make at home to be filling and enjoyable. Its especially helpful if I need to use up some fruit that is starting to look sad. Today’s smoothie was oranges, raspberries, blueberries and a banana, with protein powder and a smidge of OJ. I forgot I had pineapple to use. Oh well. Next time.
I have recently decided to try cutting out gluten to see if it will help my constant itching. It developed slowly, and it has risen to a level that is more than annoying. I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and it seems there may be a link between HT and gluten sensitivity (resulting in the type of itching I have). Yikes, it’s hard to cut out the bread … I love Great Harvest bread. I am learning to snarf the nuts, veggies, fruits to fill the void. Hard as it is to cut out bread, it’s even harder to avoid my summer-vice: Oberon beer.
I am so lucky, I do not like rice, grains, potatoes, crackers, not crazy about pasta either, but under no condition, I will pass the cookie in the office kitchen, no way! I eat mine and others’ who are avoiding them. I tell them that they do not have to suffer, I have taken care of their cookie! They like it! Since they kill my appetite, I never gain weight on the days when I have sweats, I am simply not hungry after them.
One thing I noticed that if you remove condition from your life under which you eat more, you will lose without trying. I have gained about 10 lbs over period of 4-5 years because of our vacations at all inclusives. Since we switched to a different type of vacation (for unrelated to weight reason), I am in a process of losing weight. I have about 4 lbs left of 10 lbs, I am not in any hurry losing them, I know that they eventually will be gone. I am not on any diet. Generally speaking, I consume much less protein than others, I just do not like meats too much, but I have different nuts every day. They taste better than meats. I love fish and we eat a lot of fresh fish on vacations. I do not care about chicken at all and turkey is not my food, period. I forget to eat eggs also, although I do not mind them. I love many veggies and all fruits, they are my carbs in addition to sweats. We eat a lot of very good bread on vacations. Here, where we live, bread just does not taste very good, so I will have about couple of toasts a month. The other carb is beer, of course! Again, it taste much better sitting in the whirlpool on the beach.
Has anyone tried that new ice cream Halo Top? Wegman’s and Whole Foods carries it. 240 calories and 8 grams of fat in a whole pint. No kidding. I purchased the chocolate yesterday and have to say it is really good. Just not quite as creamy as regular ice cream. But for a low cal treat you are not going to do better than this! No artificial ingredients either.
So half a pint is 120 cals and 4 grams of fat. And most people wouldn’t eat that much in one serving.
D has tried it. Lots of air in it (the pint is weirdly light in the hand), which I think lowers the calories per serving and makes it easier than you think to down a half pint. The sweetness comes from Stevia and Erythritol, which may or may not appeal. She liked it, but had some indigestion from it, so decided not to get it again.
My current favorite frozen treat is Friendlys Fudgealicious bars (basically fudgsicles, but better tasting than the name brand of those), which come in at 100 calories, 1.5 grams of fat, and enough chocolate flavor to fend off an ice cream yearning. They wouldn’t fit very well into the fast day of the 5-2 diet, but would work very nicely on the other days.
I read the label before purchasing and noticed there was sugar, stevia and erythritol used as sweetners. I expected to taste the latter two but actually did not. I think mixing those sweetners in equal part with real sugar makes a difference in taste.
On days when I’m fasting I go out of my way not to think about food. Luckily, today was not that day :D.
To me, stevia tastes bitter. I grew it a few years ago in my garden and it was just yucky to me. Younger D couldn’t taste the bitterness, which at the time I thought was odd because kids are usually wired to be more sensitive to bitter tasting substances (evolutionary adaptation to not eating alkaloid poisons), but then I found out later it’s a genetic thing-just like cilantro tastes grossly soapy to some people, stevia tastes bitter to some people.
I’m just getting used to things being less sweet. Right now the 2% milk that I drink a lot of (always have, always will) has 12g of sugar per serving, which is the same as Captain Crunch (that just boggles my mind). So, anytime I’m drinking milk now I’m thinking, this is my big sugar.
I got used to stuff being less salty when DH had to cut his salt intake because it turns out his BP is sensitive to salt. Mine isn’t, but I dropped the amount of salt I cooked with way down and let the kids salt as needed. I found my taste buds eventually adapted (as did the kids), and now there are some food where we’re like, wow, too salty! (like Doritos-overwhelmingly salty to me).
I find the fast days work the best for me when I’m just not around food-if I see it, watch it on tv, or talk about it, I want to eat it (and who wouldn’t?).
I am really interested in continuing to hear about people’s experiences with this.
I don’t dismiss it as another crazy fad; I believe the doctor who came up with it was initially trying to address issues other than weight…pre-diabetes possibly. He looked at people who lived long lives and came upon the idea of fasting, which eventually led to the 5:2. His health issues resolved eating this way and he had the bonus of losing some weight.
A few years ago I watched a documentary about it. Interesting.
I’m eating pretty healthy these days but am finding it hard to lose with recently changed metabolism due to menopause. I might give this a try.
Those of you who are doing intermittent fasting and finding you are able to both stay with it and lose weight, could you share how you typically compose your eating on your 500 calorie days? Do you split the calories over three “meals” or fewer? Eat more early in the day or later? Any particular foods you rely on? I think it would make sense to plan the fast day intake ahead of time and have it all ready to go–fewer decisions to make on the spot, fewer opportunities to mess up.
Well, I found this thread on Monday and did the fasting Tuesday and Thursday. It was hard - I was hungry and thought about food more than I normally do. By the end of the day I was cranky and tired. But I’m going to keep doing it for the next 2 weeks to see how it works.
I ate scrambled eggs and coffee for breakfast. Lettuce with vinegar and cucumbers for lunch, and Salad with chicken for dinner. And coffee- lots of coffee. I should be drinking more water.
On the non fast days I eat normally, but am also trying to exercise. This diet certainly makes me more calorie aware than I’ve bee in a long time. I’m more of a carb counter, so didn’t realize how many calories I’ve been eating on my lower carb kick (cheese, meat, etc…).
I find it easier to just not eat on fast days, though sometimes will have a non fat latte if I am struggling.
However, I belong to two 5-2 groups, and the vast majority of people eat the 500 calories in one meal. Dinner. There may be health benefits from fasting beyond weight loss, so the idea is to fast for more hours. Also, a little bit of food often makes people hungrier whereas if you can get through the initial hunger pangs, they diminish and you lose that sensation of needing to eat.
A friend of mine maintains her weight by taking one fast day a week (not two) for at least the last 20 years. Not exactly a new concept. Works for her.
I am not a creature of habit at all, so I just go with whatever works on that day. I tend not to get hungry normally until around 10 am, so pushing that out to noon and having a hard boiled egg and a salad is easy for me.
Big fan of hard boiled eggs. I also eat a lot of raspberries and blueberries (because I like them and it takes a long time to eat them). I drink a LOT of water and tea all day long, especially on fast days.
Sometimes when I am really hungry I’ll go for a fast 20 minute walk-I don’t know why, but it kills my appetite every time. That gets me through the serious hunger pangs at 3 pm. Then I’ll just eat the protein and veggie part of dinner and go to bed early (because I’m tired and hungry and looking forward to the next day when I can eat whatever I want).
I also have a t shirt that I wear that says “I’m Sorry For What I Said When I Was Hungry”. :))
Attitude is part of it-being hungry is not a bad thing. It’s not harmful (except to others because I get mean), and it’s ok to feel it, and it isn’t something that needs to be immediately corrected.
I found this definition which I find to be unbelievable: “The 5:2 diet, or fast diet, is a diet which stipulates calorie restriction for two non-consecutive days a week and unconstrained eating the other five days.”
I could do a lot of damage with five days a week of unconstrained eating, completely obliterating any loss from two days of semi-fasting! LOL.
My mother, back in her mid fifties, began not eating dinner as a way of maintaining her weight. My dad had always come home for lunch every day so that was their pattern…a hot, full meal mid-day vs. evening. She will be 95 years old in Sept. and still eats very, very little dinner if any. She is in assisted living and despises the food anyway, LOL.
