Intermittent Fasting - Thoughts? Comments?

zoebertrand0791

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? Did you try it? Did you like/hate it? Was it helpful/not helpful? How did you feel doing it? Most importantly, how did you start?

Mike1804

I’ve tried 18 hrs fasting 1-2x week for the last 3 weeks- just to see if I could do it. Not too hard at 18 hrs, not sure I could do anything longer. The verdict is still out for me... I’m going to keep it up for a few more weeks and re-evaluate then

TavistockToad

its not for me, but it did help me become a little more mindful of when i was eating - ie eating when hungry and not because its breakfast time.

i just started by not eating breakfast one day, and eating my calories later on in the day.

Carlos_421

I've done it.
It can be a helpful tool for achieving a calorie deficit if it suits your eating style. It can leave you feeling starving and ready to binge out if it doesn't.
Beyond being a potential tool for creating a deficit, it has no advantage over simply controlling portions to achieve the same result.

kommodevaran

I think intermittent fasting is just a silly name for not eating all the time. But I think it's good if a silly name can make you improve your eating habits. I have been eating my meals in a 6-8 hours window, at least most days, for over a year. I like it a lot. It makes me feel like a normal person, I feel confident that I can wait for my meal, I'm more flexible, I don't have to think about food so much, and I appreciate food more. I started by not having time or appetite for the fourth meal of the day. It felt strange and a bit scary at first, but also very liberating.

Carlos_421

As for how I felt doing it, this won't be the same as how you would feel doing it. Hunger and satiety is different for everyone.

iowalinda

zoebertrand0791 wrote: »

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? Did you try it? Did you like/hate it? Was it helpful/not helpful? How did you feel doing it? Most importantly, how did you start?

I find it to be a very helpful tool. In fact, it fits more naturally with how I've always eaten. I am never hungry first thing in the morning. Actually, when I eat breakfast, I feel nauseous and it seems to set me up to overeat that day. I am better off to consume my calories between noon and 6 pm.

lemurcat12

Doesn't work for me, since I enjoy breakfast -- I've tried not eating it, but found it hard to hit my protein goal without it -- and I eat dinner late. My schedule is (roughly) 6 am, noon, 9 pm, usually. But I find it helpful not to snack between meals, and I think IF is really just a similar kind of thing.

sijomial

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting?
A potentially useful tool for some people. Inappropriate or unhelpful for others.
It's a selection of tools really as there's many varieties of IF.
Currently over-hyped, over-sold, overly fashionable and one of the two bandwagons people are all too often leaping blindly onto right now.

Did you try it?
Yes 5:2 to lose my excess weight, 16:8 while maintaining.

Did you like/hate it?
Liked 5:2, disliked 16:8 (despite being someone who easily and frequently skips breakfast - I don't like being "told" when I can and can't eat!)

Was it helpful/not helpful?
5:2 was, 16:8 wasn't.

How did you feel doing it?
5:2 felt better than everyday calorie restriction, also felt hungry of course but only two days a week as opposed to seven days a week. Kept my energy levels up, supported my exercise and recovery well, made my adherence to a moderate weekly deficit easier, much better fit into my social life. Transition to maintenance was a breeze as I was already eating at maintenance five days a week.
16:8 just irritated me and made me a clock watcher.

Most importantly, how did you start?
I researched it with a cynical eye. There a whole load of nonsense spoken about it and snippets of research quoted entirely out of context or minimal benefits extrapolated to ridiculous degrees.

Need2Exerc1se

I like it. I was doing it for decades before I heard the term. It seems a natural way to eat for me. I don't know if it helped with weight loss though, since I was also eating that way when I gained weight.

Pollypro99

I have been doing 16/8 (or 15/9) for 16 days. For me it has been helpful to curb my night eating, aka my witching hours.
I have enjoyed fasting, and lost some first pounds quickly... I know that most is just water and it will slow down. I still watch my intake and stay at about 1200 cal a day or 8 hour eating period. I am limiting my carbs to early in the eating period and I have increased my healthy fats. I have also totally given up any artificial sugar, anything low fat and no alcohol. I had been "training for a few months before Christmas. I am making life changes to not just lose weight but feel better. I am in my 40's and have a total appreciation for feeding your body as fuel and for the long term.

With the fasting, I like that i can change up the hours... in the week I start my fast early.. on the weekends I start later in the evening to accommodate my social schedule and fast longer into the day.

Overall I feel better, skin is breaking out a little, I am sleeping more and have more energy!

Oh and to start.. I just picked a day and started the fast in the evening... I use an app to track what hour I am in, only because I fluctuate a little on my times.

cbohling1987

When I was losing weight I did do 16/8 IF. Actually it was more like 18/6 but whatever.

It didn't have any noticeable impact on my weight loss (i.e. the rate was the same regardless of when I ate, which makes sense) but it did have a meaningful psychological impact on me in that it taught me how to better resist the temptation to eat. I think that's the real value in it.

malibu927

I was doing it for about a year and a half based on my work schedule. Now it's more varied that I now have a different eating schedule. But all it is is a tool to help you stick to your calories. I ate the same amount doing IF as I do now.

AnvilHead

I think it can be useful to some people, based upon increased satiety/adherence. I think a lot of the purported "benefits" are highly overblown and I agree with sijomial that it's a very faddish, trendy thing to do right now.

I eat more or less in a 16/8 pattern, just because it's how I naturally prefer to eat most of the time. If I eat an early breakfast I'm hungrier all day and find it harder to control my calorie intake than if I delay breakfast until somewhere around noon. I'm not as hungry in the morning and I prefer big dinners because that's when my appetite is largest. So it was helpful during weight loss and now in maintenance because it makes it easier for me to keep my calories in check and still be satisfied with the amount of food I'm eating.

I say that I "more or less" eat in a 16/8 pattern because I don't treat it like a religion. If I'm hungry in the morning for whatever reason, I'll eat something; if it's beyond that 8-hour window in the evening and I want a snack, I have a snack. It's just my normally preferred eating pattern and it doesn't bother me one bit to deviate from it because I don't ascribe any magic or wizardry to eating at certain times of the day.

It's no different than the fact that some people like to eat 5-6 (or more) small meals per day, while others do better eating 1-3 larger meals per day. The main advantage to either way is satiety and increased adherence.

How to start? Try it and see if you like it. Choose a 'window' you want to eat in, do it for a few days and see how you feel. If it's hard for you to contain your eating to that window, then it's not beneficial for you; if you find it satisfying and easier to stick to your calorie goal, maybe it's something worth doing for a while.

pattyhouse1970

I did this once. I had to have blood work done late in the afternoon and couldn't eat for like 9 hours before that. So I had breakfast and then didn't eat again until after the blood work. Next morning I had dropped close to 3 pounds. So I can see where this would work if you did it several times a week. I only did it that once time though because it was hard to not eat during that time window. I drank water like there was no tomorrow. I know I got a gallon in that day.
I did gain a couple of that back, but I didn't to back up to what I was the day before I fasted.
I did eat all of my calories for that day.

steveko89

I've been loosely following 16:8 for a while, pretty indifferent about it but think it can be a useful tool to help limit calories, especially if you have a tendency to eat too heavily for breakfast and/or snack mid-morning or after dinner. I don't feel I've experienced any of the "benefits" often championing higher fat burning, better sleep or whatever, and (like most fitness "hacks") are largely overblown. There's also the convenience factor of only planning for two meals most days, which is nice because I'm pretty lazy when it really comes down to it.

DananaNanas

Due to my work schedule I have to eat dinner pretty late every night. If I start eating in the afternoon instead of the morning I find I'm not starving all day and still have most of my calories leftover for dinner, which I prefer. Works for me and most days I don't have to think about it. (Started off with 16:8 but I normally do 18:6 now... with an 8 hour eating window I would still get hungry between lunch and dinner but now I don't really.)

ccrdragon

I just naturally gravitate to an 18:6 pattern of eating. I have never been a big early eater so I eat my first meal at noon or later and don't snack in the evening. It has worked for me for two reasons - it's natural to me and it allows me to eat larger meals since I don't have to divide my daily calories into many small packets.

fionawilliamson

I naturally do IF, I have friends that have to eat the minute they open their eyes in the morning, that's not me. I will have a couple of cups of coffee but I don't eat breakfast until 11 am or later and my last meal is around 6:30 or 7 pm. The times that I do eat earlier in the day I find I eat more during the day, I just seem to be hungrier. With the shortened window I eat 2 meals per day, might have some nuts or a smoothie in between.

mikeb4bjj

zoebertrand0791 wrote: »

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? Did you try it? Did you like/hate it? Was it helpful/not helpful? How did you feel doing it? Most importantly, how did you start?

I found it immensely helpful for my weight loss and I'm still doing it, though now just maintaining. What I like about it is that you make a hard and fast rule and you stick to it. It's harder to overeat if you have only 6-8 hours in which to eat 2500 kcal.

I find also that my energy is more even, rather than up and down, and I focus more consistently.

How do you start? You just start. You pick a window, say, 12pm-8pm, and when 8pm comes, you are some eating until 12pm the next day. No trick to it. And it gets very easy and natural quicker than you think.

murp4069

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting? Did you try it? Did you like/hate it? Was it helpful/not helpful? How did you feel doing it? Most importantly, how did you start?

16:8 was a useful tool for me when I was actively losing because it fit my natural hunger patterns and was basically how I'd eaten my whole life. If I had breakfast, I had a hard time meeting my calorie goals because I like a large meal for dinner. Also because I hadn't eaten breakfast for most of my life, eating it often made me feel ill for the next few hours.

It seems very trendy right now and I think people seem to think that like keto, it is some sort of weight loss miracle. But really it's just a way for you structure how you eat your calories throughout the day in a way that helps you stay within your goals. If you aren't hungry at breakfast or don't like breakfast for whatever reason, it might be perfect for you. If you are starving in the morning, probably not.