Intermittent fasting??

maddyyfaye

Hello! I tried to stick with the standard calorie counting and logging with MyFitnessPal for a few months and depsite staying within my cal limit and exercising every other day I didn't lose anything at all (not even a pound). This demotivated me massivly and I gave up on the app and have put on half a stone over the last 4 months. I've decided to try again with weight loss but thought I would give intermittent fasting a try.

I'm the type of person that is always hungry and frequently snacks so I feel like with proper discipline, this diet may work for me.. I am going to try 16:8 (possibly 18:6) but was wondering about the eating window. I read a lot about people having 2 big meals spaced out in their eating window and wondered if I could still snack and eat smaller meals that are spread out within that window? Say I am eating between 1pm and 9pm, could I eat some lunch at 1pm and a evening meal at 8pm, but could I snack between the two?

williamsonrecey

Hello! I have started doing intermittent fasting. My eating window is 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Most days, I do 2 meals and one snack. If I eat a heavy lunch, I won't have a snack. I'm trying to stay around 1200 calories during the week and 1400 on the weekends.

canadjineh

It's a bit easier to intermittently fast if you lower your carbs first for a while. It eases the blood sugar/insulin roller coaster that causes cravings and the feeling that you need to eat every x hours. Low carbers & keto-ers tend to find it quite easy to fast and can go without meals without even noticing sometimes. That being said, whatever WOE works for you is the way to go. You'll only find out via experimentation. Good luck! I work nights and my eating window is from 4 pm to midnight or 1 am, my active time. I don't count calories, just watch my carbs.

vvake

1pm to 9pm is my exact eating window, I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for a while now, probably the last 10-15lbs I have lost has been helped by it.

Normally I try not to snack in between unless my first meal was light for some reason (lack of time to prep/eat it all, not at half my daily calories yet etc.). If I snack outside one of those reasons it makes my evening meal have to be light to stay within calories and I personally like to have a heavy dinner (it helps me fall asleep). Having a light dinner sometimes makes me feel hungry earlier than usual the next day as well.

I’d say if you don’t mind having light dinners and you don’t feel deprived at the end of the night or early the next day then it is okay to snack. As long as you’re eating your calories within that window then you are doing intermittent fasting.

How often you eat within the window, snacking or no is all personal preference

maddyyfaye

vvake wrote: »

1pm to 9pm is my exact eating window, I’ve been doing intermittent fasting for a while now, probably the last 10-15lbs I have lost has been helped by it.

Normally I try not to snack in between unless my first meal was light for some reason (lack of time to prep/eat it all, not at half my daily calories yet etc.). If I snack outside one of those reasons it makes my evening meal have to be light to stay within calories and I personally like to have a heavy dinner (it helps me fall asleep). Having a light dinner sometimes makes me feel hungry earlier than usual the next day as well.

I’d say if you don’t mind having light dinners and you don’t feel deprived at the end of the night or early the next day then it is okay to snack. As long as you’re eating your calories within that window then you are doing intermittent fasting.

How often you eat within the window, snacking or no is all personal preference

I have always struggled to eat a big portion in one sitting, so I'll eat like half a meal and be so full and then get hungry again 45 minutes later😂 This is probably why i snack. Although saying that, yesterdsy I ate a meal around 12.30pm and snacked on little things up until about 6pm and I wasn't even bothered about an evening meal so I just went without and I dont feel hungry this morning. It's weird, I'm the kind of person that is ALWAYS hungry so i thought fasting would be really really hard but I think because i know I can eat at 1pm my body isnt hungry until around that time.

maddyyfaye

canadjineh wrote: »

It's a bit easier to intermittently fast if you lower your carbs first for a while. It eases the blood sugar/insulin roller coaster that causes cravings and the feeling that you need to eat every x hours.

I also have PCOS which I think can cause hunger and cravings due to hormone imbalance which makes it hard for me not to snack because im always hungry haha. I should lower my carbs though anyway because with PCOS I shouldn't be having white flour (which is annoying 😂)

canadjineh

@maddyyfaye, you might find this study helpful: It's National Institutes of Health (gov't site, not woo-woo bro-science)
pilot study - low carb/keto for PCOS