Intermittent Fasting

NotQuiteNorm

Does anyone have success with this and what are the basic principles? I only ask because I am only hungry for a few hours of the day, around 4-8pm, would this be good to try?

Please, if you are going to be rude or mean do it on someone else's thread. I am tired of being called an idiot every time I make a comment trying to be helpful - people seem to be very caught up in the "deficit is all that matters" and I really don't like that because if I ate 1380kcal of cake it sure as hell would change how my body takes 1380kcal of healthy food. And I am more likely to be tempted to cheat or something if I'm still as hungry at 5pm as I would be had I not eaten breakfast.

NotQuiteNorm

Basically, come 5pm I've been as hungry as ever and, trying to spread those last 300kcal is turning my imagination to food porn so yesterday I wasted some of it on chocolate! Gutted

Want to avoid this hungry feeling - and yesterday I had eggs and turkey in both my lunch and dinner so it's not protein

RoxieDawn

This is not a stupid question and you will find there are a lot of people that do IF here.

I "break fast" around 11:30 a.m. or 12:00 p.m. and stop eating around 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m.

The basic principle is this is not a diet.. it is an eating schedule and yes it does help. For first week as your body gets used to it you may feel differently as you are changing up the timing you consume food.

I also now spread out my macro (like carbs across meals) so I am not eating so many carbs in one sitting. It has helped me a lot.

RoxieDawn

I am wondering what type of IF are you doing? Is it 5:2 or 16/8, etc...?

NotQuiteNorm

Thanks. It sounds good to me because I used to barely eat, but gorge myself on low volume, high kcal foods (chocolate, etc) towards the end of the day, so I'm not actually hungry until around 4 which is my danger zone: I think having more calories for big high protein meals in this time would really help to stop me daydreaming about chocolate at that time!

NotQuiteNorm

I'm not doing IF just yet, but I think probably 16/8 and then have it between 2-10pm as I'm a bit of a night owl

Train4Foodz

I do different kinds of IF, because I work both days and nights it feels 'right' for me.
I also really like the feeling of exercising in a 'fasted' state!

The following page pretty much sums up the various methods of IF(I would usually sit and write a more detailed description of my own but I'm in a bit of a rush to get things sorted today at home.. So a link to a good explanation will have to do.. hah)-

http://dailyburn.com/life/health/intermittent-fasting-methods/

This 'guide' that admittedly I've only really skimmed over and seen that it looks reasonable good and fairly close to what I would be explaining myself also points out the pros and cons to each!

Wishing you all the best!

Adam

RoxieDawn

Ok.. This may work since you like eating in the afternoon and evening. Do you sleep late and does this help you bypass morning hunger?

RoxieDawn

I will add nowloss.com explains some basic principles on how to eat, timing and scheduling and how IF can help with losing weight.

This might help with some research and answering some questions you may have before you decide to try IF.

Train4Foodz

gia07 wrote: »

I will add nowloss.com explains some basic principles on how to eat, timing and scheduling and how IF can help with losing weight.

This might help with some research and answering some questions you may have before you decide to try IF.

^^+1^^
Doing research before starting any new routine or eating plan is a definite good way forward!

Along with the good sides to IF it also has it's drawbacks and you really are best going into it equipped with all the knowledge you can!

NotQuiteNorm

Not at all, I am currently fighting insomnia so I am up until all hours, but find past 10pm I have bypassed the cravings. Whether I crash at 12 or 5am I find myself up at 9am most mornings (every 10 days or so I sleep to 12).

**Until somewhat recently I had been looking after my sister's children (1, 4, 9, 10, and 12 y/o) because she took very ill while her partner was away for his job which seems to be where I got this mad sleep pattern (4 y/o up until 3am, kids needing to go to school at 9am so I'd be up 8 back then).

RoxieDawn

NotQuiteNorm wrote: »

Not at all, I am currently fighting insomnia so I am up until all hours, but find past 10pm I have bypassed the cravings. Whether I crash at 12 or 5am I find myself up at 9am most mornings (every 10 days or so I sleep to 12).

**Until somewhat recently I had been looking after my sister's children (1, 4, 9, 10, and 12 y/o) because she took very ill while her partner was away for his job which seems to be where I got this mad sleep pattern (4 y/o up until 3am, kids needing to go to school at 9am so I'd be up 8 back then).

I hate to hear about the insomnia. I fought sleep issues for a while and I will tell you that sleep is so important when you make changes in diet, schedules, etc... I get my sleep now and although it is around 6 hours it is quality sleep and getting rest and adequate sleep is almost as important as the fuel you put in your body.

Do your research on this and make sure IF is right for you and I wish you lots of luck on your journey...

NotQuiteNorm

Adam2k10 wrote: »

^^+1^^
Doing research before starting any new routine or eating plan is a definite good way forward!

Along with the good sides to IF it also has it's drawbacks and you really are best going into it equipped with all the knowledge you can!

gia07 wrote: »

I will add nowloss.com explains some basic principles on how to eat, timing and scheduling and how IF can help with losing weight.

This might help with some research and answering some questions you may have before you decide to try IF.

I know and I'm reading up as we speak - thank you btw for the links! But I also wanted to get the human perspective of how people are actually doing it. On screen a lot of things can seem like a good idea, but I'm glad to find people are happy with it and that things like concentration etc isn't being affected.

NotQuiteNorm

gia07 wrote: »

I hate to hear about the insomnia. I fought sleep issues for a while and I will tell you that sleep is so important when you make changes in diet, schedules, etc... I get my sleep now and although it is around 6 hours it is quality sleep and getting rest and adequate sleep is almost as important as the fuel you put in your body.

Thanks I've been trying to get rid of it by turning laptop, etc off at 9 and going for a walk until I get tired - I'm not sleeping as of yet but at least walking up to 2 miles will presumable help with my weight loss efforts

PeachyCarol

If you just want personal experience, I know very little of the nuts and bolts of it. I recently started asking about it and started reading about it and was surprised to find out that I was already doing 16:8 naturally. I might try to go down to 20:4 now that I've read a little more, but I have to think about it. It's hard for me to eat a lot at once.

So, I don't have difficulty concentrating or anything like that, if you had worries in that regard.

CaffeinatedConfectionist

I practice a roughly 18:6 type of IF (fasting for 18 hours, and eating within a 6 hour window). I do this purely because it is my natural eating habits. I've eaten like this for years and years before even starting to get interested in fitness and health. When I first started on MFP, I bought into the common myths that you need to eat breakfast to jumpstart your metabolism, and that you need to eat smaller, more frequent meals. The first is untrue, and the second has nothing to do with metabolism or weight loss and everything to do with adherence. Some people find it is easier to maintain their deficit if they eat like that, whereas other people, like me, find it easier to eat fewer, larger meals.

I tend to not eat (except for coffee) until I get home from work, around 4 or 5, and then I eat until around 10 or so, when I go to bed. If I eat breakfast or anything other than coffee earlier in the day, it makes me ravenous, and I rarely succeed in maintaining my deficit on those days (this tends to cause me problems during the holidays or when family is visiting, because I like to be involved in family meals, but if I don't eat my mother assumes that I am anorexic. But anyway, I digress.)

I'd recommend checking out these articles:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html/

Many people are finding that an intermittent fasting protocol, where they don’t eat anything for most of the day followed by one or two big meals works far far better for food control than the standard of eating many small meals per day. Again, this isn’t a universal and I’m currently examining differences between people to determine who will respond best to a given pattern.

I’d also note that there is a fair amount of literature that eating more frequently has benefits in terms of blood glucose control, blood lipid levels and other health markers. I’d add to that the recent work on caloric restriction and intermittent fasting (a topic I’ll look at in a later article) is finding massive benefits (especially for the brain) from less frequent meals. So even this topic isn’t as simple as ‘more frequent meals is healthier’.

However, this is all tangential to the claims being made for metabolic rate. Whether you eat 3 meals per day or 6, if your daily caloric intake is identical, you will expend the same number of calories per day from TEF. While work in rats and mice, for whom everything happens faster, has found that a single meal can lower metabolic rate, this is irrelevant to humans. Skipping a meal will not affect human metabolic rate at all.

Quite in fact, it takes at least 3-4 days of fairly strict dieting to impact on metabolic rate (and some work on fasting shows that metabolic rate goes UP acutely during the first 72 hours of fasting); a single meal means nothing. You will not go into ‘starvation mode’ because you went more than 3 hours without a meal. Nor will your muscles fall off as an average sized food meal takes 5-6 hours to fully digest, as I discuss in The Protein Book.

http://www.theiflife.com/intermittent-fasting-101-how-to-start-part-i/

slideaway1

There are many forms and methods of intermittent fasting and you will have to find the form that agrees with you most (lifestyle,convienience etc). I have found that intermittent fasting provides me with more energy and has enabled me to eat during certain "eating Windows" which helps to control the number of calories I consume in a day (For me it's about 3000 for maintenance). I sleep all night, do not eat breakfast and work out (1 hour exercise on an empty stomach). Strangely, working out on an empty stomach actually gives me more energy and focused as food can sometimes make me sluggish and tired before a workout. I do not consume my first calorie until 2 O clock in the afternoon. I only drink water during the morning. I then have an 8 hour window (between 2-10pm) where I can eat what I like up to my calorie goal for the day. I eat two 15,00 calorie meals between this time which are pretty huge and satisfying and stops me snacking. This also helps me hit all of my protein goals. Typical 1500 calorie meal for me is: 1 275g large chicken breast, two sweet potato, bag of mixed veg and gravy. My second 15,00 calorie meal (usually at 8pm) could be a large pizza and a protein shake. This form of intermittent fasting would be called 16:8, because I eat my calories for the day in a eight hour window (between 2-10pm) and only consume water (or black coffee if you wish). For the rest of the 16 hours. Remember the 16 hours of not eating includes time when you are asleep so it is not as hard as you think. I sleep for nine hours.
This is quite an extreme version of Intermittent fasting and just my preference. There are various other methods to suit every individuals needs/lifestyle that will achieve very successful results.

NotQuiteNorm

I've done a bit of reading and I think I'm going to go for 18:6 for a few days and depending how it goes be open to both 16:8 and 20:4 depending how I feel. Because I'm used to eating small amounts of rubbish in only a small window of time I really find myself forcing food the rest of the day so I think this will be fab

Thanks for all the positive responses, I feel a lot more certain about this now!

Ps. Anyone notice they drink more during IF? I don't feel hungry so far but I am well into my 3rd water since 9am and am usually lucky to have 3 glasses/mugs of anything in a full day.

slideaway1

NotQuiteNorm wrote: »

I've done a bit of reading and I think I'm going to go for 18:6 for a few days and depending how it goes be open to both 16:8 and 20:4 depending how I feel. Because I'm used to eating small amounts of rubbish in only a small window of time I really find myself forcing food the rest of the day so I think this will be fab

Thanks for all the positive responses, I feel a lot more certain about this now!

Ps. Anyone notice they drink more during IF? I don't feel hungry so far but I am well into my 3rd water since 9am and am usually lucky to have 3 glasses/mugs of anything in a full day.

Yes, I drink about 6 litres of water a day, but that is mainly due to me just loving water (it's all I drink). It does keep you feeling fuller for longer though and staying hydrated when fasting is very important.

LilleanC

I just recently started IF last week. I had problems with staying withing my calorie range and someone here suggested it to me. I decided to start with 16:8 and I must say it works FABULOUS. I was scared that I would feel hungry before lunch but nope. I would wake up, work out for about 30 minutes and then head to work. I would normally have unsweetened herbal tea at work and yes it does make you drink lots of water. By 12pm I eat my first calorie for the day and my last calorie intake would be about 8pm after gym. I didn't do IF yesterday because I was at home with my husband and I didn't want him getting on my case as to why I'm not eating breakfast so I eat with him. I"m back at it today though. I'm loving IF.

Alluminati

You still have to be in a deficit to lose, IF is just a different way to stay within that deficit. I don't do the traditional IF method but I tweaked if for myself and its working. I have to eat 1600 a day to be at a deficit. I find that I naturally tend to skip breakfast and can have a piece of fruit and coffee for lunch without headaches and negative effects. I will eat the rest of my cals for dinner and still stay within 1600.

If I start eating in the morning I find myself hungrier and looking for food throughout the day, which makes staying within 1600 cals harder. I suggest experimenting with different eating windows to see what works for you. But to reiterate, you still have to be in a deficit to lose.

PeachyCarol

NotQuiteNorm wrote: »

I've done a bit of reading and I think I'm going to go for 18:6 for a few days and depending how it goes be open to both 16:8 and 20:4 depending how I feel. Because I'm used to eating small amounts of rubbish in only a small window of time I really find myself forcing food the rest of the day so I think this will be fab

Thanks for all the positive responses, I feel a lot more certain about this now!

Ps. Anyone notice they drink more during IF? I don't feel hungry so far but I am well into my 3rd water since 9am and am usually lucky to have 3 glasses/mugs of anything in a full day.

I have chronic dry mouth thanks to a medication I'm on, so I don't know if it's down to my eating pattern or that... but I drink a TON of water.

NotQuiteNorm

I

OdesAngel wrote: »

You still have to be in a deficit to lose, IF is just a different way to stay within that deficit. I don't do the traditional IF method but I tweaked if for myself and its working. I have to eat 1600 a day to be at a deficit. I find that I naturally tend to skip breakfast and can have a piece of fruit and coffee for lunch without headaches and negative effects. I will eat the rest of my cals for dinner and still stay within 1600.

If I start eating in the morning I find myself hungrier and looking for food throughout the day, which makes staying within 1600 cals harder. I suggest experimenting with different eating windows to see what works for you. But to reiterate, you still have to be in a deficit to lose.

Yeah, IF just seems like the best way to curb my late afternoon cravings as I can have more calories then because I didn't have them earlier. Thanks for the heads up anyway I kinda worried about posting this as I see a lot of people being treated like an idiot for even asking (which, even if they don't know much, is not the right way to talk to someone) but I'm so glad to see all polite, informative posts on my thread

slideaway1

NotQuiteNorm wrote: »

I

OdesAngel wrote: »

You still have to be in a deficit to lose, IF is just a different way to stay within that deficit. I don't do the traditional IF method but I tweaked if for myself and its working. I have to eat 1600 a day to be at a deficit. I find that I naturally tend to skip breakfast and can have a piece of fruit and coffee for lunch without headaches and negative effects. I will eat the rest of my cals for dinner and still stay within 1600.

If I start eating in the morning I find myself hungrier and looking for food throughout the day, which makes staying within 1600 cals harder. I suggest experimenting with different eating windows to see what works for you. But to reiterate, you still have to be in a deficit to lose.

Yeah, IF just seems like the best way to curb my late afternoon cravings as I can have more calories then because I didn't have them earlier. Thanks for the heads up anyway I kinda worried about posting this as I see a lot of people being treated like an idiot for even asking (which, even if they don't know much, is not the right way to talk to someone) but I'm so glad to see all polite, informative posts on my thread

That's exactly how it works. It's just a tool that can be adopted to suit the users needs to hit a calorie goal for the day. Meal timing is not important and there is no law that says you cannot skip breakfast and lunch to save your calories for a bigger, satisfying meal of an evening etc. There is also no rule that says you should instantly refuel after a workout if you do not need to. Weight loss is primarily about being in a deficit when you put your head on the pillow to go to sleep for that day. However people get to those magic numbers is what ever method best suits them.

NotQuiteNorm

slideaway1 wrote: »

However people get to those magic numbers is what ever method best suits them.

Realising you mean it as timings etc, but some people reading might take this to mean anything I'd like to clarify to anyone else reading this for info that he's presumably doesn't mean fast for 20 hours then eat just under your goal in cake and chocolate. Sadly.

RoxieDawn

Like the above posts states, all of people already have adopted this way of scheduled eating because of their lifestyles so moving up or moving out the schedule is easy.

Most people do not do a 20:4 or 19:5.. It is very easy to do a 16:8 or 17:7 or even a 18:6. I would not recommend eating all your calories in one or even two sittings right away unless you are already sort of on this schedule.

For example, most people get up and go to work and have a mid morning snack or nothing at all until lunch besides coffee or tea.

Make this work for you and if eating chocolate at night is something you need to do, fit is in the deficit you have setup in MFP. It is simple as that..

Do I eat chocolate before I go to bed not but I do fit a low calorie or low carb dessert that I prepare. But it fits in my macros (IIFYM).

rainbow198

I've been doing IF naturally for the past 2 years. When I first started logging my food I noticed mini-meals and snacks didn't satisfy me and actually caused me to eat more since I was usually still hungry.

I decided to try to start eating when I was hungry and discovered delaying breakfast and eating in a window works really great for me. I didn't even know what IF was when I started it.

When I first started my window was more between 8 - 10 hours and I ate about 4 times and included a snack some days.

Now I eat all the calories I need each day in about a 4 - 6 hour window. This translates to 2 to 3 very filling well-balanced meals and I make sure I'm hitting my macros. (The window may increase during vacations, holidays, events etc. I'm not overly strict during those times).

There's no hunger, I sleep better, fat loss accelerated and I believe it has made maintaining for me much easier as it helped me develop a much better relationship with food. I used mindlessly snack after dinner or I would look at the clock waiting for the next snack. No more. I'm in control now!

I think it's important to start off slow. I talk to so many people that go from eating 6 - 8 times and day, then go balls to the wall with IF and have a really tough time. Start off with a 12 hour window and build from there. If that's too easy, increase to 14 hours and so forth. It can take a couple weeks for the body to become fat-adapted.

Secondly research the various protocols and see what might fit better for your lifestyle. Like for me I am very active and maintaining so I need a lot of calories. 5:2 would not work for me. I need food and lots of it. Also make sure you don't have any health problems like blood sugar issues.

Good luck!