FluffyChix

I'll have to check em out then! I love fewer ingredients. What's the exact name/variety please?

I love these meals. I use the Wasa Fiber ones that have the highest fiber for the carbs and it tastes vaguely of sesame. So dang good. I also like the GG Brancrisps. YUM!

Damn, I feel like I'm playing one of those Sunday morning comics games where you try to find the difference between 2 pictures of the same image. If I ate as little as you do, I'd eat whatever I damn-well wanted too. *sniff* Yummy looking food though!

Between 500-600 cals at 5 weeks.

Yeah, I hear ya. I think IF is a very useful tool. It's only when women (normies or WLpeeps) get into the 20:4 type of rotation that I start to worry for them for all the reasons I gave previously. I will be really curious to watch your journey! I'm actually going to try going back to ADF per the Dr. Johnson method. Every other day is a calorie restricted day to 500cals. It's super easy for me to get my protein in and even a good amount of veg in for 500 cals. And the alternating days are your normal diet, which I'm going to try to get up to 1100 cals. That's probably gonna be the hardest day! LOL. I am also giving up my morning Premier Proteins and going back to my black coffee and plain teas. There's honestly no reason for me to keep putting protein supps in my body. I can eat plenty per meal to take in my protein veg and fruits.

Absolutely you can! That's the beauty of being autonomous! The disordered part is choosing to constrict to 4hours of eating. To me, I see that maybe you are cutting food to hard to see results and that you are riding the initial "high" that comes with IF. Cuz you do get an endorphin high btw. With tons of energy. It's that feel good mood elevator that also somewhat spurs ana-peeps in anorexic food limits. Not saying you are...but it's a very subtle shift at first. The timing is def. a tax on your body from my perspective (biochemically). I am not sure I know your reasoning for doing this, nor does it matter. it's your reason and you're entitled to it. Don't know if it helps to limit the shakes or not. At the end of the day, I do believe the main body of science that says your body will suffer if given insufficient protein over a long enough period of time.

It's actually Dr. Walter Longo. I made a typo earlier--sorry. I've read a ton of his stuff and have done IF. We discussed it in earlier threads. You should know that his definition of calorie deprivation was like by memory somewhere around 1400 cals/day. LOL. And he's now doing short bursts of fasts over multiple days...not forevs. The body can take short bursts easier than chronic stuff. A 4 hour window for a female with a normal tum is dicey.

Ok, so this is super bad biochemically. I don't care who you are, you can't out-snowflake basic biochem. LOL. (Snowflake=just cuz you think you should be able to do xy or z, the rules of physics, chemistry, and biology don't apply to you. And by "you" I mean "any of us, not specifically 'you'. LOL) Your body/pancreas/liver/et al needs between 2-4 hours to clear out the previous meal and get your blood sugar elevation back to its baseline pre-meal level. The end. Story over. LOL. That's IF you have a normal pancreas and liver not gummed up by fat, or with billions of dead beta cells, nor are you hyperinsulinemic or insulin resistant. If you are any of those, it may actually take as long as 5-6 hours for post-prandial (post meal) blood sugar to return to pre-prandial levels (pre-meal). And it's pretty important for it to return to normal baselines. That's when it's repairing itself, and using stored food for fuel (burning fat). It's when it's the happiest and when it has the least amount of inflammation. But you are severely taxing it with your short eating windows and not allowing it to return to pre-meal levels. This will over time consistently elevate your insulin resistance, the amount of insulin your pancreas will crank out in response to a meal, and will drive your blood sugar up. If not immediately, then over time... So here's what your schedule is doing to your blood sugar. It's causing an elevation long over 4 hours cuz you aren't giving your body time to go back to pre-meal levels between your meal windows: M1=15g of medium acting protein (PP has casein and whey isolates so it's a quick and slow-ish acting protein=ins spike) M2=12-14g protein (30 minutes later: rut roh rastro, your blood sugar is still in overdrive from your protein drink therefore the it will kinda act like this is all one big gigantor meal of about 30g of protein. Still not a bad thing, cuz 30g of protein is doable in a meal--especially at night.) M3=Coffee with another 15g or protein from Premier the medium acting protein (1 hour later). So now your body is processing 45g of protein. Holy moly! It's treating it "maybe" as one huge meal cuz it's only 1 hour later and your blood sugar is still elevated from the other 2 whamtastic meals you've just dumped on your livah.) It should be hollerin' "Help me Mama! Make the bad man stop!" Cuz you know, you're not Arnold Schwarzenegger or some huge guy with huge protein needs. Your little Tealael. A normal size girl...with a daily need of 60-80g of protein no matter who you are: carnivore, omnivore, vegetable, or mineral. M4=15g of protein (30-60minutes later). By now, your pancreas and liver are saying..."The fu*k?!!!! Is she trying to kill us?" Cuz crap. Your blood sugar is elevated by now. Your insulin is being cranked out. Your cells are saying, "Let no more insulin or food pass into this body." And now you're just gummin' up the works. I think this is a very simplistic lay-person explanation of what is going on biochemically. There are certainly errors here cuz you know, I'm a lay person. But this seems like a very hard window for anyone to eat within and not very sound biochemically. Don't care who your ancestors are. And if you're a woman, this is doubly bad mumbo jumbo. Cuz none of us need to build our testosterone levels like males do. Historically males tend to do better from long fasts than women. Fasting in men helps drive up their androgens and stimulates the production of testosterone and HGH (human growth hormone). Sorry for offering my 2cents girl. This just feels very disordered to me.

Inquiring minds. I'm pretty sure the body can't assimilate 60-80g of protein per day within a 4 hour window and if you do, you're pushing your insulin needs up very high. Because each gram of protein carries with it, the need for a basic level of insulin. So it's like giving yourself a BIG push of protein at one or two feedings. I think 16:8 is very doable, especially if your quantities are approaching semi-normal size for a skinny person.

See I'm good by night time. I may have a planned bedtime snack, but it's usually 4-6 bing cherries and 6 almonds. LOL. (Those damn almonds again...) But I have a witching hour(s) between 3:30-7:00 (dinner time) where I habitually snacked from the time I was in grade school to adulthood. The power is great within those hours. The beast lives on and tries hard to take command of the ship. I work from home.

Be glad about that girl!! ((hugs)) For your continued struggle.

^^^I've had hungry hungry hippo days where nothing appeases me but to add a "semi-crap snack". I'm ALWAYS appalled at how many calories there are in this snack and for such relatively little volume. And invariably, it throws off my meal schedule where I'm not hungry and I have to fight myself, not to say, "Well, I've already blown it and am not that hungry--therefore I shall continue with just another little crap-filled, high-calorie snack. LOL. And these are so-called HEALTHY snacks: Quest Protein Chips and any kind of dip...even made with Greek Yogurt Parmesan Cheese Crisps with Peanut or Almond Butter Union Cafe Bar Nuts (homemade with Truvia) Cheese/Salami/Pepperoni Apples & Peanut Butter Almonds and Damn-Near Anything Cocoa Almonds and ALL.THE.THINGS!!!! (I feel like I'm yelling. Am I yelling?) Hummus on my finger...or with veggies Did I mention full-fat cheddar cheese of ANY KIND? Real Ranch or Onion Dip with any veggie or pepperoni chip And the list could go on all day.

I have actually poured dishwashing liquid over the tops of stuff in the trash. LOL.

Whining is allowed. It's "wwwwwwwiiiiiiiinnnnnneeeee-ing" you will be roasted at the stake for doing here. I honestly "exercise" the cravings away. Some might see that as transferrance but I don't honestly see it as that "yet." I get up, get active, do a short burst of activity like walking around the house very fast. About 10 minutes does and extinguished the cravings. For real hunger, I just drink water (water load) until a normal meal or snack time, then I eat a balanced meal. But for food ambivalence, I honestly just relished those times. If I needed to cry I would. I talked it out a lot -- to anyone who would listen. And came here a lot. Your hormones will be all over the place. You just have to remind yourself to process the feelings that come with not having food as one of your medications any more. My food ambivalence period only lasted about 3-4 weeks. So it was just a tiny blip on the radar. Now, that I'm 6 months, I am dealing with the complete opposite and dealing with antipathy to making a lot of effort to make good choices in the face of cravings. I'm so close to goal and am feeling good in my body and comfortable in normal size clothes...these are all very dangerous to my mind-set of "laser focus get to goal at all costs."

Congrats!!!

Well...embrace it. Cuz it only lasts a short time. Glom onto it. Relish it. Get the basics in and get on with your life. Cuz trust me. Your appetite will come back and then you'll have to figure out what to do with all the cravings and head/gut hunger.

Geeze. So scary! I'd say this is something for your docs to figure out for sure!!! It sounds like a muscle spasm? But where? Dunno. I get one in the intercostal at the chest level/bottom of my ribs. It's at T-9. It feels like a steel cable around from my back to my sternum and sometimes hops over to the right side as well. It makes it tough to breath. But there is no mistake it's a muscle spasm rather than a heart attack. We know the cause, a non-cancerous lesion on my T-9 traps the nerve. I get irregular heart beats that make me catch my breath (in a diff scenario). It's like a flutter. And if it lasts too long, I have to hold my breath and bear down to get it to stop. It makes me feel like passing out at times. That IS heart related. Not muscle. We know the reason: leaky valves and fluid around the heart, and thyroid dysregulation. So the question is, which is more like what you're feeling? Cuz these are treated by diff docs. I'd start with your internist though. And maybe get an echo/stress test, etc.

The one thing I wouldn't trust after bariatric surgery is.... dunh dunh dunh..... the birth control pill I think it's pretty well-known to be unreliable in preventing conception cuz of our new anatomy. But I had a hyster many years ago so don't really follow this stuff so closely.

Ok, so I'm pretty much a vampire. I haven't appeared in a single family photo or event pic in the last 20-30 years or so. I CAN NOT STAND having my piccy taken. (Am I yelling? Cuz I feel like I am?) You know what I'm tawkin' 'bout? So yesterday I got as dolled up as I ever get, which ahem, means I bathed, brushed my teeth, dried and scrunched up my hair--but I went out on a limb and put on a tiny bit of makeup. I swear to the sweet baby Jesus of the golden fleece diapers, I looked hot. I felt hot. I felt like this! I swear! You shoulda seen me struttin' my hot stuff through the lemon jello section. Mama June, give. it. up. Cuz I was smokin'. You get the picture? In case you don't, I could be this chix sistah from another mistah! So I screwed up the courage, called myself Felicia, and asked Mr. F. to pop off a few "before photos" so I can use them for comparison. I will suffer through another round the morning of surgery, and then will take them periodically throughout the journey to Oz. (Thank you @James Marusek. I will be eternally grateful for this advice.) When I looked at them, I almost cried. I thought I'd made such progress. I felt "thin" at my 235lbs. I mean look up at my twin right there. What happened? I almost went outside and ate worms. Not part of my pre-op plan to be sure, but still a powerful source of protein and fiber if you're so inclined...Oh, what I look like... Do any of you feel the same way or have you had the same experiences??? Just so you know... Ring, ring... Hello selfies? Go screw yourself! Signed, Sincerely yours, Body Dysmorphic in Houston

I'm not done yet. I've lost about 55% of my EBW so far at 6 months. But here's a 6 month "little bit better than 1/2way" B/A for ya.

^^^ This!

Thanks lady!! ((hugs)) I do feel so much better than I did 120lbs ago, that's for sure. But I feel like I can do better and feel even better if I continue the journey. I just think now is the time (if any) to really push to get those answers. DO I feel better at 130 or 140? I could never answer that question for myself before. You know?

I wear a messy bun on the top of my hair. I use a hair piece over the bun to give it fullness and I do these front pieces as "swoops wrapped around the bun kinda audrey hepburn style. It's easy to do if you partition your hair. My hair is so thin and sparce now and you can't tell with it done this way.

We all do different plans. For me, I watch ALL macros and caloric levels since I'm in super-menopause from a cancer drug. If I eat too many cals, I quit losing and can actually gain. So I know what it takes to lose (650-850cals/day) and I know that I MUST keep my carbs low. I only figured out that fat levels keep me from losing by trial and error. But after RNY surgery, fat just plain makes me feel sick, cuz they removed part of the small intestine that handles fat. So I feel really bad and have to go to bed if I eat too much rich, fatty food. So I personally do low carb, lower fat, calorie limited diet. LOL. Not everyone is as broken as I am and can enjoy more stuff. That's ok not to be me. Or follow my diet! We each have to figure out the rules of the road as they apply to our unique bodily reqs. I just shared about me and fat in my diet cuz you asked about salmon. Even with my issues with fat, I still eat salmon at least 1 or 2 meals a week and have not had a problem either from nausea or weight loss because of it.

Yeeeeehhhhaaaawwwwww! Congrats girlie! You look beautiful and so much healthier!!!