Arlene,


It's good to hear from you. We hope things are going well!
When starting out on Fast-5, it's important to stick to the plan
consistently until weight loss is steady and comfortable. After that,
modifcations to suit one's preferences and schedule are appropriate.

Once you've adapted to Fast-5, are comfortable with the Fast-5 schedule,
and are seeing steady weight loss, then changing the window to suit a
particular schedule is unlikely to cause problems. The worst it can do
is slow your weight loss or make it more difficult to close your window
and not eat for the remainder of the time you are awake. There is at
least one Fast-Fiver who eats a business lunch once a week and is still
losing weight at a pace that is completely satisfactory to him. Fast-5
is meant to be tailored to suit individual needs. If you stop losing
weight, then go back to what worked. If you keep losing weight, and are
still comfortably keeping your fast, then the change is one you can
keep. What works for others may not work for you, and what works for you
may not work for others, so your personal experience after making an
adjustment is what matters.

Accidentally eating something can trigger limbic hunger and make it
difficult to keep your fast, and a bite of something sweet may release
enough insulin to shut down your fat metabolism for a while. However, it
happens and if it happens on a rare occasion, it's nothing to worry
about. If it's socially acceptable to spit out your bite without
swallowing any, then you can keep the accidental bite from changing
anything. If it's not socially acceptable to spit it out, or you swallow
before you remember you're breaking your fast, then whatever impact one
bite might have is fairly small and is just a little slip that will
delay but not prevent your weight loss. In a week's worth of effort,
it's not likely to make a noticeable difference. The real problem is
that the one bite may trigger limbic hunger, causing your ability to
resist hunger's drive to falter, so one bite leads to another and
another, and that will likely have some impact on your effort.

If you still have questions about this, we'd welcome your email or call
to talk about it at 904-685-5117.

Best wishes,

Bert

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