Opinions on IF? 5:2

kiela64

What are your thoughts on intermittent fasting?

Obviously controlled/tracking every day & eating at maintenance the rest of the time - I'm looking at the 5:2 split.

Mostly just out of curiosity, I have friends that fast for religious reasons & I always thought they must be superhuman to get through the day without food. It might be an interesting challenge/different way to get that calorie deficit. With 5:2 it gives you two 500cal days - or about 1/4 of maintenance. I've tried it twice now, managed to keep under 600 but not under 500 lol.

I wondered what other people's thoughts & experiences of it are?

StealthHealth

I.F. and 5:2 are two different fasting protocols but in answer to your question. I've used both and as yo point out the calories need to be right to dive weight loss. That said I found both protocols pretty easy and they fit in with my lifestyle well. I see it as a tool to aid diet compliance.

I still use IF when losing weight and in maintenance (I sometimes bulk and drop IF to eat from morning to night 7 days a week).

I usually find only the first couple of days of a new IF period a bit of a struggle but after that I get into the swing of things and a morning coffee sets me up until lunchtime when I break my fast.

I think that it is important to continue to track when fasting to ensure that the calories are spot on (it is easy to both over and under eat on fasting protocols). I don't notice any problems in work outs when training fasted (although it is important to note that I don't do any long, steady state cardio - my longest runs in fasted state would be 30 mins and I would plan to eat quite soon after a run.

All in all, I consider fasting to be a useful technique for weight control and I have used it for periods as long as 6 months following a 10:14 daily pattern (eating between noon and 10pm).

kiela64

Thanks for sharing your experience! I haven't tried exercising fasted, I'm doing cardio on my non-fasting days.