u/Purple-Yesterday2061

I did ADF late April - late May and lost 12 lbs/5.4 kg, which is mind blowing for me as a 44F with PCOS. I wasn't working out that much either and my cycle changed so it was a week later than usual but I was making progress and looked like it. Of course the next few months ended up being super hectic travel and a loss of motivation because I'm looking for a job and the market is demoralizing, at best. I have been swinging between 20:4 and not being able to care because of the intense financial stress so of course, I binged last night and feel like garbage. I didn't gain more than a bit weight in the last few months, but it feels like a lot more.

I think recommitting to ADF will be super helpful for mental health right now (and my bank account lol) so I'm restarting today!!

I cleared out the easyfast app data and went through all the easy food in my kitchen last night. What's left will require some work to make and so I won't find the motivation for that today.

I'm 5'2''/1.55m and 172lbs/78-79 kg so I have about 50 lbs/23 kg to lose. I know I can do it, just posting here so it's out there and I hold myself accountable.

My plan:

36+ hours fast - MW

20ish hour fast - F (If I have no social plans, then I'll extend this to 36+)

Eating - TTHSa, fast starts earlier on Sun

Weekly average of ~15k steps/day

Either a yoga or strength training session every day (I think most days will not be as intense as it sounds because the financial stress of being unemployed is really trying to destroy my will to live)

I have been doing ADF for almost two months and it's been great but the mental part of it is really wearing me out today for whatever reason. I'm also starting a new chapter of life soon and I know it will be hard to fast a full 3 days a week (MWF, 36 hours each, for me). I don't want to stop though because I still have about 40 lbs/18 kg to lose. I was thinking I could do one 36 hour fast and then do 18:6 or 19:5 the rest of the week. Has anyone else done this and seen results? (Especially if you're a perimenopausal woman?) In theory I could do OMAD the rest of the week too since I'm pretty good about getting protein and fiber into my diet now.

Has anyone had a skipped period due to ADF? I (44F) am four days late. Not pregnant! The reason I'm asking is because I've been like clockwork the last few years, and my hormone levels are pretty good for someone my age per my doctor.

[I have seen some old posts regarding changing up fasting around our cycle but not skipped periods. I'm also not taking what a chiropractor says about female hormones as gospel.]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding but, Megan Ramos/Dr. Fung have essentially said it's fine to fast around/through your period if you can but it's fine to modify it. I've only been doing ADF for four weeks, MWF and roughly 16:8 on feasting days. I jumped in cold turkey because that's the only way I was actually going to do it. The first day I had an issue was last Friday, so I stopped at 20 hours, made that an OMAD day, and then carried on. I did the same this Friday but have been relatively ok the last few days I was supposed to be on my period. What's wild is that I've had all the usual symptoms - bloating, fatigue, cramps, emotional state, etc. Just no bleeding.

I am hoping it's just the shock to my system? I feel great otherwise. I do Sat morning weigh-ins and haven't lost anything but haven't gained either and down roughly 5 kgs/10 lbs for the month. Definitely lost inches/cms everywhere too. So I'm considering ADF a good choice. Just wondering if others have had this experience? Did it come back for you the next month? Or was it just super late and now your schedule is different?

For context I'm 44F and South Asian American. I recently realized during an extended stay at my parents' place that they think I'm completely worthless since I'm not married and I'm looking for a job. I have been great about saving money but I asked several times if it was all right to come for an extended stay with them outside of my city so that it would buy me a little more time in this horrendous job market. Both insisted I do so.

And now, every day I hear them whispering about how I'm useless because I'm not married, don't know how to compromise, and have no potential for a future (I'm actually highly accomplished in my field, it really is a bad market in the US). There were strange, rage-filled complaints about how I used my brother's mug for coffee one day and I even more rage-filled complaint that I didn't want to give some guy who they set me up with a chance. The guy in question has taken no initiative, never asks me any questions when we have talked, and just seems generally 'off.' I feel like I'm already forcing it and all I've suggested is a second date.

Then one day I realized my mother might know I had been molested when I was nine years old.

It was something she said that triggered some long-buried, fuzzy-until-now memory. Now I remember/think I had told her what had happened, in whatever way a nine year old in the early 90s could. I now remember/think she silently walked out of the room.

What I've always remembered vividly is how badly she had treated me during that trip to the motherland, how she constantly ridiculed me in front of the entire family, how she acted like I was a nuisance. I remember clearly how it continued when we got back and for years how she looked at me - a look I now think maybe was pure disgust.

I'm not getting her a Mother's Day gift. Culture and time dictate I ignore this becuase while the actual act is a distinct memory that haunts me and something I work on in therapy, maybe her reaction is an amalgamation of her past behavior and how i'm feeling now. Maybe it wasn't real. But, the feeling is and their more recent behavior is very real.

She and my father truly seem to hate me because I'm not married. They've talked so badly about me for so long, even my brother - who I helped raise - acts like I'm a nobody. He doesn't hate me, he just thinks nothing of me except that I 'play victim' when I've tried to commiserate in the way siblings usually do about their parents. I stopped trying to connect with him a while ago and he seems fine with that.