Is Intermittent Fasting really as easy as people claim?

Nathanae
Nathanae Posts: 29 Member
edited December 19 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi there,

I am looking for people (preferably women who want to lose weight) with experience of IF.

I have started a bit over a week ago and found it okay so far. I'm doing 16/8 (eating window 9:30-17:30, but the last two days I tried pushing that a bit and went 17.5/6.5 and 18.2/5.7, because it's the weekend and I don't have to have as much energy. Also, I heard somewhere the benefits start at 16hours and exponentially get better.)

My worry is, though: Can I just eat whatever I like (like I had chocolate, cereal and yoghurt and biscuits, smoothies, and big meals! (not all at once and not obscene amounts (well, to people here maybe -.-)), but it wasn't like I was "on a diet"-eating then), or do I still have to count and log calories in the feeding window? I did for the first two days, which resulted in me overthinking and undereating again - which caused my last diet to be very successful but also an emotional rollercoaster of undereating and binging and in the end, yoyo-ing back way past where I started. I decided to stop since I worried that the double strain of logging AND having an eye on the clock would make it less sustainable for me.


Sorry, this is a confusing post so far. I think what I mostly mean is to ask successful 16/8 IF-veterans: how much did you restrict and/or monitor your food intake during the feeding time or is it really "anything goes as long as you have only tea, water and black coffee for 16 hours afterwards"? How much did you actually lose and how quick was the process? (I know that quick isn't best because of sustainability and saggy skin, but I have NO idea what to expect from this! Is IF done casually more a "I want to lose 4 pounds"-kind of diet or "I need to drop 20kilos (40 pounds) before my [random big event in 5 months time]!"-kind of diet? It seems to be poplular among bodybuilding men, so I'd like to hear from a regular woman who doesn't go to the gym or doesn't have moderate workouts more than 2-3 times a week.

.... and how many calories breaks a fast? (because depending on which kind of coffee you select, even pure black unsweetened coffee is mostly listed to have some calories on mfp but most websites so far said it was okay to have it during fasting).

It's only been 9 nights of fasting, and I don't spend the entire 8 hours eating, but I still wonder if I'm overeating because I am worried about having to push back breakfast (I didn't really skip it most days, just had it later)... I haven't had the big "first-week-of-diet-water-weight-loss" that I usually have, so I'm worried I'm doing it wrong! I may have made mistakes like taking zinc supplements that tasted too sweet to be completely fine or took some powder supposed to suppress hunger, which has also like 3 calories, which seems extremely low, but I have now idea how delicate the fasting itself is!

The time frame and intensity seems unclear to me as well. Some people said they did the 16/8 only a couple days a week, some say it's a lifestyle and you should do low-carb in the feeding window as well... I find the entire thing very loosely defined so far and am still trying to figure out what I have to do and what the result can be?

hope someone will reply and share their experience.
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Replies

  • Nathanae
    Nathanae Posts: 29 Member
    edited January 2019
    earlnabby wrote: »
    There is nothing magic about IF and yes, it is very loosely defined because there is no one way to do IF. IF just means meal timing and you can combine it with anything else you want. It is one of many ways to stay within your calorie goal so whether it works or not depends more on a person's hunger signals than anything else.

    I can't do it. Among other things, I am T2Dm and if I don't eat 4-5 times a day I get low blood sugar. (I manage the disease by diet and exercise, no medication of any kind).

    I am the type of person who is likely to binge so, even if I didn't have diabetes, I would be more likely to eat way too much when I do eat only 1-2 meals a day.

    I had that problem during my restriction diet - I just ate snacks every 1-2 hours to be at a baseline and not get hangry or binge-y (which I still did because I think I restricted to much and obsessed). For me, it wasn't because of a medical condition, though. just what I preferred to be "safe" despite the restriction. I was surprised how doable IF was for me this last week. I expected to do much worse!
  • zeejane03
    zeejane03 Posts: 993 Member
    edited January 2019
    I'm a female who did an IF protocol during my active weight loss phase. I did alternate day IF, which means I alternated between very low calorie days and then maintenance level calorie days. Within my calorie targets I ate whatever I wanted-mostly highly processed foods, fast food several times a week, no fruit, very little veggies etc. Lost the excess weight and improved my health markers.

    For the first few years of maintenance I did 16:8 IF, but still kept track of my calorie intake and still kept within my calorie targets. During that time I experimented quite a bit with my food choices-everything from 'primal' to the Nutritarian woe (very low fat vegetarian).

    I'm now almost 6 years into maintenance and no longer do IF, just got bored with it.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited January 2019
    Oh, on the 5/2 version, I have a friend who does it. She was never overweight but did it to lose vanity lbs and loved it because she found it very easy, so kept doing it to maintain. How she does it is that she eats whatever she wants on the 5 days (although she doesn't have a tendency to binge or a bad diet at all), and then counts calories (to reach only 500) on the other 2. She says it's nice since for her she can eat the amounts she wants on the other days without her weight creeping up.

    I suspect it could work better for someone less overweight, though, and that if you were someone with more to lose or more food issues it might not work or might work only with counting so you knew you were eating at maintenance on the 5 days and not way above.
  • hawkmancody
    hawkmancody Posts: 63 Member
    Personally I'm just not hungry till evening so I usually eat one meal(around 6-7 pm)I do however have to be careful or i can go way over my calories if im not keeping track.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    edited January 2019
    I've done IF at different times. There were times that I did very well and times that I was entirely unable to sustain it. It tensed to fluctuate depending on my schedule and various life circumstances. Having said that, some people do very well and some people can't. There's no shame either way.

    You do still have to eat fewer calories than you burn to lose weight.
  • leahcollett1
    leahcollett1 Posts: 807 Member
    hi, i also do 16:8 same as the reason of the lady above, to keep my calorie under control and only spend them when im genuinely hungry which is about 11. i would also consume empty calories after 7pm. doing 16:8 which for me is 7pm til 11am fast cuts all that out. its enabled me to be able to keep within my 1240 allowance easy. and cut the mindless snacking out .. too be honest this week as its been time of the month has been a bloody struggle and i cave with coffee usually lattes are my weak point although Nescafe sachets are 73 calories a mug a good substitute from say starbucks! ha ha
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