Every persons' metabolism is different, but this is my general routine;
I do the fasting thing, it's more of an informal thing that I've been doing unknowingly for about 10 years. I hardly eat throughout the day anyway. - Sometimes I'll have a lunch with colleagues at work - Steers or something lekker, like once every three weeks.
The first week or so your body keeps feeling hungry, for this I used to just eat some Provitas with cream cheese on them. After a while you don't get hunger pangs that often anymore, and then I start fasting.
I have a big plate of food in the evening, consisting of:
- Protein (2x Chicken breasts / 1x steak / 2-3x eggs / 2x fish) - pick one
- Vegetables (mostly roasted vegetable mix, sometimes boere-beans, peas, sometimes a bean salad)
- Iron - Broccoli / Raisins / Spinach / chicken livers / dried fruits (I specifically stipulate iron because I have somewhat of an iron deficiency) -also, people don't realise how important iron is, ultimately it manufactures red blood cells, which transport oxygen to various parts of your body.
- Carbs - Depending on your immediate (24h) energy consumption - I stick to 1500kcal or roughly 300g of carbs - I usually make a pasta and pepper salad, but whatever carbs you feel like that evening - Rice, potato wedges, pasta etc. - Don't do bread. Anything but bread.
An air-fryer works wonders for this, I can put every portion needed for a meal into it, and cook it all at the same time - with some timing caveats of course.
In the mornings, 90% of the time, it's yoghurt and granola, granola provides long lasting energy, and the yoghurt helps with digestion. On weekends I hardly eat breakfast at all, and I'd rather opt for a smoked chicken salad for lunch, same 4 basics I mentioned above for dinner.
I've cut down on all sugars and bread, I drink black coffee, and only sugars I eat are fruits whenever I feel like. (consider doing fruit at the beginning of fasting too, as this helps ease into it)
don't try and do fasting in a cold-turkey fashion - you
will pass out, especially if you're very active at work. - Sometimes a chocolate, I limit it to once a week. 80g slab over a weekend.
I grew up working with Muslim people, they used to fast a lot, to the point where the Arab Embassy used to send us dates during fasting. 😅 The dates are a great source of energy and carbs to get you through the day. I like them, you might not. 🙃
Throughout the day I drink ±3-4 litres of water. I have a 1.7-litre bottle at work, which I ensure is empty by the end of the day, and another 2.2-litre bottle at home, which I ensure is empty by the time I go to bed, or at least half. Keep the other half on the bedside table.
Exercise - Trust me, I know you don't want to, but exercise is so, so, so important when you get older. Back problems are no joke. You need adequate muscle density in order to support your spine/skeleton, otherwise you end up with a myriad of back- and neck- related issues.
I'm 197cm and 108kg, down from 130kg. Target is 90.
I'm sloppy at keeping progression reports, but I've been actively keeping an eye on my food intake for 6-8 months, focussing on exercising as much as I can.
It is by no means a "rapid weight loss" shock therapy type method, it's a leaned down version of my usual diet, mostly cutting out snacks and convenience foods.
JK don't do that haha.
