I've not been on the site for a long time but felt i needed to share my recent success! I've gone down the intermittent fasting route and have now lost 13 pounds since August and am now losing every week now just doing 12 hour fasts. Started off on 16 hour fasts and it took a few weeks for things to start working but it really is doing what it says on the tin ....and isn't even that difficult! Please give it a try- it's the only thing that has worked for me in years so i'm thrilled with it. Not only that but my frozen shoulder (going on for over 2 years ) has massively loosened up so that was an unexpected bonus! good luck with it, i'm sure you won't be disappointed if you give this a try?xx
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Revsie
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Well done. Pleased that’s working for you but can you explain a bit more what you mean by 12 hour intermittent fasts? If you eat at 8pm in the evening and then nothing until 8am in the morning that is a 12 hour fast! Surely most of us do that or a version of that everyday so how can you do a 12 hour intermittent fast? I’m curious? 🙂
I was amazed as I also thought that, but when I stopped eating or drinking anything other than water from 8pm until at least 8am it made me realise how much I used to keep snacking or drinking coffee until bed time and that I personally never fasted for 12 hours. Even if I'd missed a meal I probably had coffee/milk/cola/tea etc instead which will still break your fast.
The period with only water gives your body time to rest and it's been a real eye-opener for me. Believe me I wouldn't have put this on here if it was just my latest fad attempt at dieting .. but it is truly working and I really wanted others who despaired as I did that losing weight was never going to happen no matter what I did.
There's loads of information on 'you tube' from Nutritionists/Doctors etc who can explain far better than me, just key in 'intermittent fasting' and you'll see for yourself what it's all about, but I just wanted anyone who thinks they will never lose weight to know this option - I'm constantly learning from it and now that I'm starting to see results it's making me more interested in eating healthier foods. I've still a way to go though to understanding how to do the healthy eating part as a lifestyle plan. However, even with my eating habits not being anywhere near perfect, I'm still getting the results and that's all that matters to me at the moment until I'm ready to delve deeper 🙂
"it made me realise how much I used to keep snacking or drinking coffee until bed"
Sounds as if you are learning to eat a healthier, better balanced diet by cutting out all the empty calories you previously snacked on. Your "food" input is less which is reducing your calorie in take which in turn is helping you lose weight.
It's certainly not a diet fad it is just helping you to eat less....and it will work. Just don't start snacking during the day!
Yes it certainly makes you cut out some useless food that you don't even realise you're eating, but even a small cup of coffee with a dash of milk will break your fast and stop the good work that happens during the fasting window as it's not about calories...it's far bigger than reducing your food intake which has never worked for me in the past as I find it impossible to maintain.
I currently still eat whatever I want during the day, today's food intake has been 2 mince pies with brandy sauce (breakfast), 2 buttered ham and mustard tea-cakes (lunch), burgers and salad will be my evening meal and then I'll probably have a couple of beers before I start fasting at 8pm - so imagine what sort of weight loss I could have if I did the perfect diet as well? But just knowing this means I can start to get results slowly and do a bit at a time and when I'm in the right frame of mind as my body gets smaller I'll probably start to want to up my game, however I'm not running before I can walk and I don't want to stress myself into worrying about the perfect diet at the moment even though I will try most days to have something nourishing - just not today! 🐽
Knowing my body is being repaired through fasting is just amazing and is what has kept me going since I started this in August (plus actually seeing results)! I must stress it took a few weeks of longer fasting before anything started to happen as the cells need to repair first before they begin to work properly again, especially on post menopausal women who unfairly have more of a problem getting their cells in shape. All I can reiterate is that it works. Please see the following cut and pasted from Google re how fantastic fasting is - if it can win you a Nobel Prize then I think there's much more to it than reducing calories? The topic is just astounding and believe me is not difficult! Please don't feel you need to be bogged down with getting everything right at first - I haven't, but the longer I do this the more knowledge I want to get.
Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2016 for his research on how cells recycle and renew their content, a process called autophagy. Fasting activates autophagy, which helps slow down the aging process and has a positive impact on cell renewal.
The scientific evidence for autophagy is very limited and all data so far is from rat studies not humans. The evidence around fasting and weight loss suggests at the moment, that intermittent fasting is simply a matter of fewer calories going in. This is a useful summary of peer reviewed studies to date rhitrition.com/is-intermitt...
But if its a system that works for you, a fabulous!! Congrats on the weight loss
OMG you're so wrong! Please actually try it for yourself before commenting on my post ! I've read hundreds of papers about intermittent fasting, listened to many, many nutritionists and GP's who talk on this subject and then I don't just talk the talk I have actually walked the walk by doing this for the past 5 months and seeing success. You highlight one person who references 5 papers! Don't knock something until you try it. I've advised on my post for people to research intermittent fasting for themselves on You Tube and make up their own minds, all I wanted to do was share my success story and you have jumped in with the calorie counting and have not looked deeper into the absolutely amazing science of Autophagy.
I think I'm more interested in what a Nobel Prize winner and the experts who decided he had earned that award have to say than someone on HealthUnlocked scrolling through people's posts and writing unhelpful comments in order to seem intelligent. The reason I stopped coming onto this site is because as soon as someone puts something on here you get a flood of people telling them they're wrong - even though they're sat at home still feeling ill because they don't have the answers themselves. I came back on here because all the time I've been away I've never given up and have gone from one thing to another trying to find something to improve my health and each time I try something I don't give up until I know personally it doesn't work for me, but I'll always give it a try first and not judge. Then when I finally found something that works I decided I'd share my triumph .....but not without a sense of dread as I knew there would be many people on here ready to try to knock me down.
Anyway, if you don't want to try it that's up to you, meanwhile I'll carry on quietly with my success journey and wish you well in trying to find yours.
I think you missed the bit where I congratulated you on your success
I’m not wrong I’m merely relaying the science. The work Ohsumi has done is amazing but I think even he would be very careful about extrapolating that to humans and making claims. I’m not trying to knock you but I believe it’s really important for anyone reading about topics like this to understand the nuance of the science and be able to differentiate between opinion and fact.
I have tried it and I don’t think I ever disputed that it could work. I’m just saying there’s no magic about it.
Brilliant you’ve taken control of your health and that it works for you and your positive story I’m sure will give others some encouragement to try it and hope that there’s a strategy that works for them.
Well done ! Good to read positive news ! The frozen shoulder is So common with us thyroid patients isn’t it ? Mine came as soon as I changed from Levothyroxine onto NDT - & upper arm pains - bruising ! Yet I feel so much better on NDT - very odd
thank you - nice to read a positive response rather than being automatically put down! I didn't know a frozen shoulder was linked to thyroid, well you learn something new every day! 👍
You should be congratulated for something that works for you. Calories in and calories out is old fashioned thinking. We have to nourish our bodies. Keep going strong because you are doing amazing and your mental health is in a good place. Positive mind, positive body
Hi. I found your post really interesting. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. New Year is a good time to try new things and I think I will give this a go for 2021. Wishing you and everyone on the forum a happy and healthy 2021!
Unfortunately I tried it this year, and it made no difference on my scales I had a 15:9 split, a small breakfast at 10, lunch about 1pm and dinner at 7.
I'm glad it made a difference for you, but it doesn't always help those with hashi's.
That 's a shame. Did you try it for an extended period because it does take time for your cells to repair before you start to see your body responding with weight loss- although for me my frozen shoulder and eye bags responded in days which was a bonus?
About 5 months? I started in the summer and basically just took a break for Christmas. Although it's not that different. I don't tend to eat breakfast on my days off, so the first thing I eat is about 12pm and I don't really eat after 9pm to give my digestive system time to rest before I go to bed (I like to give it at least 2 hours between food and bed)
Ah well you certainly gave it a good try then if you did it for 5 months. Hopefully it'll work as good for others who decide to give it a go as it has for me ...and I was really beginning to think that nothing would, so I'm continually excited that it's proving to be my answer. By the way I also have hashimoto's.
Thank you, if it can work for me then there's no reason it won't work for someone else .... and there's plenty of positive feedback on You Tube to support it. x
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I had a 15:9 split, a small breakfast at 10, lunch about 1pm and dinner at 7.
Pcos and losing weight with hypo
Still can't lose weight
Underactive looking for help losing weight
Losing weight. 
Why I stopped losing weight?
