Questions about Fasting

Ive been reading and hearing a lot about intermittent fasting, does anyone here use that as a maintenance? How do you get your protein in, do you exercise on your fast days? How long do you fast, how many hours at a time or days a week?

Im looking for general information and advice!

I'm still actively losing, but I do IF three days a week (M,Th,Fri). I do a 16/8 on those days, meaning, I don't eat until 12 on fast days and I stop eating at 8p. The rest of the time I drink unsweetened iced tea or drink water.

Getting enough protein is always hard for me, regardless of whether or not I do IF. I eat between 900 and 1000 calories every day and I don't change that on IF days. What does change is I tend to get a lot less carbs on IF days because I prioritize protein and fat on those days to get enough calories in the limited time. IF days are all lean meat and vegetables/leafy greens. Yes, I exercise on Friday, which is an IF day. I'm ravenous after my morning work out on Friday, but I just drink drink drin****il lunch, and then I eat a high protein, high fat lunch. An omelette with cheese for instance.

My goal is to switch to IF (16/8) every day. But it's more challenging when I'm at home than when I'm in the office. At home, I am inclined to snack. It's habit more than hunger.

Im trying to break that 200 barrier and stay there more often than not. Right now I'm staying around 205, which is 100 down from my surgery weight 4/2/15. And I am very proud of that fact, but it's a daily struggle and I'd like to find a way to make it easier.

As your sleeve matures you should be able to eat more.

But as you are losing weight, you still should have enough stored fats to IF safely.

I regained app 30 lbs last year and when I was ready to lose it, IF with Keto-Paleo type eating allowed me to do it rather easily.

But I did 14-10 hours most days. Weekend I would often do 16/8.

To transition from normal feeding to IF I did by moving my first meal of the day farther and farther.

My typical final eating window was 12-9 pm, since I seldom was hungry in the morning, and often had problem with breakfast. My gut had a hard time with food or even protein shakes first thing am. When I tried to "push food in" too early, I would get nausea, or cramps. At the same time, I was almost always more hungry later during the day, and I needed food shortly before bed to prevent middle of the night hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)

I used the morning hours for drinking a lot of liquids, like coffee, tea, water. That seams to really help my gut motility. My system like warm liquids to wake up. I often would drink 80-100oz of liquids between waking up and my first meal. Drinking that much liquids, needs to be supported my taking extra electrolytes, like sodium, magnesium, potassium, etc. When I don't, I could get worsening of orthostatic hypotension and muscle cramps.

I've found eating early through lunch is easier. I have morning meds to take that upset my stomach when I don't have something with them. Just coffee or water usually isn't enough. I don't want to wait until 10am to 12pm to take my meds. I like to go to the gym early and eat or at least have a protein shake. I think I'm going to try eating between 6/7 to 2/3. I don't mind missing dinner, I don't feel hungry with my sleeve.

Absolutely. Listen to your body.

For me - when I started, I slowly increased my fasting window. Eventually it became 14 -16. I started doing that to improve motility of my small intestine, and to help with my IBS. I really started doing that when I was app 8-10 lbs above my goal, when I already accepted that it was to hard to diet to lose that. What surprised me how quickly I started losing, and how relatively easy was to lose even past my goal of 150-155. I eventually settled at 140-145. But if I gained back to 150 - I would be ok with that.

After I posted my response to you I noticed that you are 3 years post op.

One thing that was essential to lose weight for me was absolutely no alcohol and no diet soda.