Anyone practice intermittent fasting?

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ArizonaToast
ArizonaToast Posts: 231 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I would love to hear your experience.

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  • andreaen
    andreaen Posts: 365 Member
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    I tried it but found it didn't fit my lifestyle. I really like breakfast, and I feel tired in the morning if I don't have it so I stopped
  • rikkejohnsenrij
    rikkejohnsenrij Posts: 510 Member
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    I do 5:2....it works for me:)
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Intermittent fasting can be many different protocols. Intermittent fasting is bold health claims. Intermittent fasting is a catchy name for the idea of not eating all the time. 16:8 and 18:6 is nothing more than formalizing "skipping breakfast". I actually practice IF, unintentionally, just by eating breakfast at 10, lunch at 1 and dinner at 5. I find having regular meals an easy way to practice discipline. A "feeding window" of 6-8 hours is just one way "regular meals" might turn out.
  • fuzzylop72
    fuzzylop72 Posts: 651 Member
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    I do leangains, and consume most of my calories between 5pm - midnight.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,384 Member
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    I've done 16:8 for a long time, now I'm transitioning into 20:4 for maintenance. I hope to maintain without calorie counting, so the shorter feeding window should help with that. It's only been 2 days of 20:4 but I really like it so far. I have a late lunch at 3pm, then dinner at around 6pm. The 3pm lunch keeps me going for the rest of the workday and I can do errands and cook dinner after work without feeling hungry.

    It's always a good disclaimer to mention - IF is just a way of timing your meals, you still need a calorie deficit to lose weight.
  • RaleighCaldwell
    RaleighCaldwell Posts: 44 Member
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    16/8 for me since August of last year. Works great for me, but I've never been a big breakfast eater.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
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    I did it for a long time with good results. Skipping breakfast wasn't a huge deal, I'd work out on my lunch break, have something small shortly after, then a big dinner. I like being able to eat a lot of food, so it worked with my own preferences pretty well and never really felt like I was trying to swim upstream.

    However, it eventually increased my tendencies/desire to binge. Larger meals that were planned and within my calories became blitzes on the pantry/refrigerator to the tune of 2x my maintenance cals. I eventually backed off and refocused... spreading out my cals a bit more based on my training rather than some feed window.
  • Chunkahlunkah
    Chunkahlunkah Posts: 373 Member
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    kommodevaran wrote: »
    Intermittent fasting is a catchy name for the idea of not eating all the time. .

    :D

    I don't formally practice IF, but I do tend to fall into a "feeding window" WOE. Just the way my appetite works on most days, so long as my schedule allows for it.

  • amfmmama
    amfmmama Posts: 1,420 Member
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    I was losing, and then hit a little plateau.... I was a pretty consistent night snacker, but within my daily calories. I decided to try 16:8. I stopped eating around 7 and ate again around 11. I don't think it was magic, but weight loss did start again. I realized that, when I snack at night, I never grab something good for me, and it is rarely because I am hungry.
    It was funny, one night after dinner, I had dessert (chillycow ice cream) and my kids thought it was odd that I was having a snack so soon after dinner. I explained to them that when their grandparents were little, they had dinner and dessert, after that the kitchen was closed!

    It's working for me.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
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    16:8 when I'm "cutting" (something I'm doing now - I only consider to be "cutting" when I'm in a lifting program). When I was in the second half of my primary weight loss time last year, I used 16:8 effectively. There's nothing magic about it. Once I got used to not eating early in the day, I was able to eat portions I was comfortable with and at the same time keep my calories where they should be. It's still all about calories.

  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
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    fuzzylop72 wrote: »
    I do leangains, and consume most of my calories between 5pm - midnight.

    What's your experience with that program? Are you doing Reverse Pyramid training too? Or just the leangains regimen? Do you cycle calories and/or partition your nutrients? Just curious about that. I don't have the schedule that really allows me to put that kind of effort into it, but I'm curious about others' experience with it.....
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    andreaen wrote: »
    I tried it but found it didn't fit my lifestyle. I really like breakfast, and I feel tired in the morning if I don't have it so I stopped

    Ditto. I don't LIKE breakfast though and it's so much easier to stick to my calories when I skip it... but I typically feel weak and just horrible by 10am if I don't eat.

    I had no problem skipping breakfast when I was snacking until 10pm though... but it still gave me the 14 hour window that I get now (I usually don't eat after 6pm, have breakfast around 8am).

    In the end it's really up to you and what works for you. I could do with a big breakfast, light lunch, and no dinner most of the time.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
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    I did it for quite a while and it worked well for me. Recently, I’ve had a change of schedule and have started doing Pilates in the morning and I feel I need to eat breakfast now.

    Anyway, best of luck with it :)
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    I skip breakfast when I need to drop a few # and add it back in when I don’t. IF - there you have it!

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