Intermittent fasting

lesliroot

I have been doing IF for about 3 months after speaking to lots of people, my doctor and reading ALOT! I love it! I follow the leangains method. I finish my last meal about 7pm and fast until 1 pm the next day... After that I eat lunch and dinner at about 1000 calories per meal!!!! So much more satisfying that those 6 small meals a day and I've lost those last five pounds I've been trying to get rid of for years! Lots of different methods to try... The 5/2 fast is a really good one too!

itsclobberintime

Glad to hear that you found something that works for you.

RodaRose

That is great. I do something like that too: eat when I get home from work and a small meal later in the evening.

francihm

I am also following the LeanGains approach. 3rd day today and it's going well.

mkakids

I have always naturally followed IF.....I rarely eat before noon. I now aim to eat allmy cals bbetween 2-10pm.

I also follow 5:2, which I find easier than a daily reduction in calories.

Natacha73

I'm just starting IF. Do any of you have some positive sources for female IF? I did one wk so far and found it easy but now I'm back at gym and find myself lack of energy and hungry advice? 16:8 eating between 10-6 working out in evening.

Sarasmaintaining

Natacha73 wrote: »

I'm just starting IF. Do any of you have some positive sources for female IF? I did one wk so far and found it easy but now I'm back at gym and find myself lack of energy and hungry advice? 16:8 eating between 10-6 working out in evening.

I did alternate day IF for my weight loss phase, 5:2IF for the transition period into maintenance and I now do 16:8IF as part of my maintenance plan. My eating window is 11am-7pm and I don't usually have issues with hunger after my window closes, but I also don't follow a rigorous exercise program. I do some body-weight strength training 3 nights a week, but it's pretty low intensity so it doesn't affect hunger at all. There's quite a few people here who follow IF and exercise-hopefully one of them can chime in with more help!

rainbow198

Sounds like you're doing great OP! Glad you found something that works for you. Love, love, love those large meals too.

Natacha73 wrote: »

I'm just starting IF. Do any of you have some positive sources for female IF? I did one wk so far and found it easy but now I'm back at gym and find myself lack of energy and hungry advice? 16:8 eating between 10-6 working out in evening.

I've been IFing naturally for about 2 and a half years straight. I'm in perfect health, all of my health numbers are great and I've never lost my cycle.

When I started I was getting tired of eating all day so I decided to buck the "you must eat 6 times a day" system, listen to my hunger cues, eat around that and see how I felt. I did not intentionally set out to IF, I didn't even know what it was at the time.

I pushed breakfast back slowly and it worked well for me since I kind of forced myself to eat breakfast.

Eventually I was able to stop my mindless nighttime snacking which made my window even smaller.

Now during the week I eat all of my calories in 2, sometimes 3 meals between about 11am - 5 or 6pm then I'm done eating for the day. On weekends my window usually gets moved around depending what I have going on.

For my exercise I mainly lift weights, workout videos and do speed walking intervals. No high impact and very little high intensity. I workout daily, sometimes twice a day and I eat all of my calories back since I'm maintaining.

Getting to your question, without knowing your eating habits (calories etc) and physical activity, based on what you wrote it sounds like you need to eat more. Perhaps extending your eating window and add in a snack? The body need to adjust to IF but you should not be feeling the way you are feeling (lack of energy/true hunger). I would give that a try and see how you feel.