DarkGoddess's Journal, 15 March 2023

Is this a comfortable eating pattern for you? IF IT ISNT, give yourself more grace and add to your eating window. As a person with disordered eating(binge), this works for me: i focus on just the eating window moreso then how long im fasting for, helps alleviate anxiety about when to eat next. During 2020, i was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, i began keto and jumped into extreme fasts. i didnt know that I had binge eating disorder., so when I ate i consumed... alot....i wasnt tracking cals then. my thyroid is normal now ( post- partum) to prevent binges, and get depression/gut healing alleviating benefits of fasting, i started tracking my normal eating pattern. In time, i fell into a 12/12 pattern and that became easy- lessened my eating window by 1 hour, then that became easy-lessened eating window 30 mins at a time until that easy....you see the pattern. hope this helps. 

Large spinach salads with protein can keep me satisfied for hours. Mint gum, coffee and or exercise can be appetite suppressants and usually work for me to prolong my next meal. I try to keep any sugar as low as possible since it just spikes my appetite-ugg! Good luck! 

Thank you so much for ideas and your support!! 

I recommend eating only meat and fat with a bare minimum amount of vegetables or none at all. Eliminate carbs completely. Once your body adjusts to this, (maybe a week) you won’t get hungry at all. This is the most sustainable diet I have ever tried. I feel great every day! 

I don't know much about intermittent fasting. I find for me that I break up my meals into 4 meals, 7 am, noon, dinner, snack before bed. I get 20 grams of protein 4x a day. I fill in my carbs and fats to get my calories for the day. I also did not do well eliminating carbs becasue I love fruit so I found following macros to work the best but everyone is different. Hopefully you will find some ideas from those who do intermittent fasting.  

It sucks for women. 1300cal sucks. I lose weight at almost twice that. Not fair I know. I’ve done plenty of fad diets and ultimately it’s about changing your relationship w food. Don’t starve yourself… just find better choices Fill yourself up w low calorie vegetables, eliminate processed food, I love to eat so I have to increase my activity level. Cardio 5-6 days/wk, weights 4-5 days. 

I can only share my experience: I destroyed my thyroid with IF as well as jacked up insulin resistance. You are struggling bcs your body is not getting enough nutrition. End of story. Eliminating carbs completely is a horrible idea...Your body Will start eating self by gluconeogenesis...Sorry, but if you want to destroy your health, go with 1300 calories. 

I think you’re doing well. Whatever you’re doing is working. Losing weight takes time, and you want it that way. So, no worries. 👍 

Without knowing why your health depends on it, as you stated, advice here could do more damage than good. Do you have high cholesterol, pre/diabetes, high heart rate, kidney issues, etc.? Can you get your doctor to refer you to a dietician? I eat 3 meals, no snacks, 1000-1250 calories/day, but most of it is quality carbs, as I'm Vegan/Whole Foods Plant Based. I can't recommend that for a diabetic. It's great for someone with high cholesterol, heart or kidney disease. 

A very low calorie diet can actually slow your metabolism. Going below 1500 is not recommended because we need a minimum amount just for basic bodily functions. Losing weight in a healthy way takes months, even years. 

Foods that make you feel full… Protein! 1g per goal weight daily and healthy fats. More Whole foods v. processed foods help me feel full longer. Ex. 6 oz ground turkey, brussel sprouts w cream cheese. Add 14g - 28g nuts. Or ex 5-6 chicken breast, broccoli, 1/2 sweet potato and butter. Or steak, 1/2c rice with asparagus cooked in olive oil. Add more veggies if you need hunger control. Pork chops, cottage cheese and beans, add cucumbers for crunch. Low carb wrap, 4oz lean ground beef cooked w garlic cloves, 28g cheese and salsa. 6oz salmon w cream cheese and brussel sprouts w 1/2 sweet potato. Reduce sugar and make your own desserts w sugar substitute. SF flavored water, occasionally Diet Coke but mostly drink water. Eliminate snacking. These meals helped me.  

Honestly I finely went to my PCP. I found out I was not eating enough calories and my body thought I was starving it. Go see your PCP. 

dark goddess- sometimes answers to posts can be overwhelming with the variety of questions and advice. Ultimately, this is YOUR journey. You asked us for our experiences and what has helped us. Its nice to see what others have done, ive learned alot from people on here. It sounds rike you are curious what others have to say. Weight loss, in a healthy natural way, is difficult. There is no "one size fits all" approach. A big portion of it is experimenting and finding what works for you. Some mentioned 1300 is too low. Maybe for them it is. Maybe a doctor recommended that for you. We dont know, but you do. There is a way to know for sure what calorie range is too low: a dietician helped me find out what my "basal metabolic rate" is, also known as BMR. You can find this number out for yourself by googling a "BMR CALCULATOR". This is the number you want to stay above. Mine is 1556. Yours will be different for you, along with everyone elses! (Alot of people recommend to ignore the Calorie recommendation on here.) 

my diet is 1200. it's about LG quantities of low calorie healthy food choices. lots of veggies, lean/low calorie meats, lite/fat free low calorie sauce/condiment choices. calorie requirements are based on your activity level. 2000cal/day diets are for athletic people. most people fall into the 1200-1600 calorie required group. more sedentary people will be fine with 1200-1300 

I have my wife on 16-8. This seems to work better for most on low calorie diets. 400cals x3. I do this as well when I'm cutting. We do cardio in the morning and then start eating at 11am after the gym.  

Hello DarkGoddess, I just want to make sure that you know hat intermittent fasting in itself does not aid in weight loss. There have been studies to this effect and what they found out was that if weight loss happened it was exclusively because of calorie deficit. I was disappointing myself with the findings after 9 months of IF (6/18) especially during going to work when I had to prepare every meal in advance. Right now I also have a 1300 RDI, and these replacements helped me stay full and lose weight easily: - shirataki noodles, instead of regular noodles - zucchini noodles, instead of regular noodles (I love pasta) - Philadephia Protein spread (87kcal/100g) - cottage cheese - my new airfryer: salmon, chicken and fish cooked without any oil - oil spray bottle - very light ice cream (Tiramisu - 102kcal/100g) - I have around 50 g most days - salad with every protein meal (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and green onion) sometimes twice per day. - I eat lots of shrimp (low cal protein source) - drink just water (except for one glass of orange juice/day) - i made lots of veggie patties (from zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli) -lowcal and filling - I don't use oil anymore for frying. There's a method of using just water. If you want to know more about caramelizing veggies and meat with water, there's a youtube video from Amercia's Test Kitchen - "For Better Browned Meat and Veggies, Just Add Water" Right now I don't even reach my full 1300 everyday, because I get full very fast. So I think these methods are working. I lost 3,4 kg from february 17th when I started counting calories here. I hope this information helps someone! Good luck! 

There are some good points here about finding what you need to do, based on your specific health issues. My husband had to reel in the sugar, while I need to keep saturated fat down and stay more full with a lot of fiber. I will tell you that the more I focused on food quality -- mostly plant-based -- the more things fell into place for me. There really are no gimmicks to take off weight, just different diets that different people find they can sustain while producing a calorie deficit. Adherence is more important than the specific diet, no matter what works for you. Best of luck to you! 

The 16-8 seems to work for me. I have had a loss each week. Keeps me from grazing. 

I personally can’t eat that low of calories or IF. I try to get in as much protein as I can along with making meals that sound good to me. A lot of that ends up being modifications to recipes I already like or simple to put together wraps. Admittedly, weight is not falling off rapidly but I am also in this for the long haul. I want to make sure my eating habits become as sustainable as possible while maintaining my metabolism. 

I eat protein and lots of veggies. fruit for a snack