Intermittent Fasting

whitetiger011680
whitetiger011680 Posts: 218 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
How intermittent is best for intermittent fasting?

Replies

  • kds10
    kds10 Posts: 452 Member
    There is lots of good information online/facebook/books, etc. Just do a google search or go to Amazon and put in Intermittent fasting.
  • kds10
    kds10 Posts: 452 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    kds10 wrote: »
    There is lots of good information online/facebook/books, etc. Just do a google search or go to Amazon and put in Intermittent fasting.

    Unfortunately there's also a huge amount of bad information online and a lot of people sadly don't have the skills or basic knowledge to differentiate between the good, the bad, the stupid and the numerous sales pitches latching on to the latest hot diet fashion.

    That is true! Plus it is varying as well, I have been doing IF for close to a year and I tend to either do an 8 or 6 hour eating window but some stuff I read stated that it should be only no longer than a 5 hour eating window..so I guess my advice is to do what works for you. If you are someone who literally eats from say 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. then start by doing say a 12:12 and then work your way up from that. The thing is it has to work in your life and your schedule. For me skipping breakfast is the easiest meal to miss.
  • azzeazsaleh5429
    azzeazsaleh5429 Posts: 77 Member
    There is a group under the groups tab that has a lot of info
  • whitetiger011680
    whitetiger011680 Posts: 218 Member
    Thank you everyone! I think I need to do more research before considering this approach. I appreciate your responses.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    I do the 8:16 intermittent fasting thing although there is flexibility. With this, I successfully lost around 80 pounds and have kept it off for over 2 years.

    psst .... if you haven't worked it out those 8 hours are when I am in bed.

    Intermittent fasting can be a great tool for keeping you to a calorie deficit as some find eating breakfast makes them hungrier during the day. This can lead to overeating. It works well for their satiety. The window frame that works best is individual and can be a trial and error approach.

    On the other end of the spectrum, some finding skipping breakfast makes them hungrier during the day and therefore makes them more prone to overeating as a result.

  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
    mattbell007 wrote: »
    I did a 10 day water-only fast in January. Some people think that is crazy, but it wasn't that hard. I never had headaches or brain fog or weakness of any kind. My brain was sharp. I felt as strong as usual. I exercised normally (including a 26-mile bicycle ride on day 7). I was hungry the first day or so, but after that, it was mostly just the "habit of eating" mental stuff that was difficult.

    I lost 20 pounds in 10 days. When I started eating again, I gained back half that (10 pounds or so). Not unexpected, because initial weight loss is bowel contents and water weight that you lose with the glycogen you burn first. All that comes right back when you start eating again. I never felt the urge to overeat after I started eating again. I just went back to my normal food intake.

    Eating nothing (fasting) is better for you than eating only a small number of calories. Your body can handle no food better than small amounts of food. (Small amounts of food keep insulin higher, making it much more difficult for your body to burn stored fat. When your body has a calorie deficit and can't easily burn stored fat, it cuts metabolism instead. With no food, insulin drops, and your body can easily burn stored fat.)

    What I did is not IF, but IF can work better than eating the same number of calories with no breaks. It is different. If you are constantly eating, insulin stays high, and your body lives on just the food you eat. If that isn't enough calories to keep living, it cuts metabolism.



    Any evidence to back this dribble up? Please do not try this as it is not healthy in any way, shape or form!
  • Phirrgus
    Phirrgus Posts: 1,894 Member
    mattbell007 wrote: »
    I did a 10 day water-only fast in January. Some people think that is crazy, but it wasn't that hard. I never had headaches or brain fog or weakness of any kind. My brain was sharp. I felt as strong as usual. I exercised normally (including a 26-mile bicycle ride on day 7). I was hungry the first day or so, but after that, it was mostly just the "habit of eating" mental stuff that was difficult.

    I lost 20 pounds in 10 days. When I started eating again, I gained back half that (10 pounds or so). Not unexpected, because initial weight loss is bowel contents and water weight that you lose with the glycogen you burn first. All that comes right back when you start eating again. I never felt the urge to overeat after I started eating again. I just went back to my normal food intake.

    Eating nothing (fasting) is better for you than eating only a small number of calories. Your body can handle no food better than small amounts of food. (Small amounts of food keep insulin higher, making it much more difficult for your body to burn stored fat. When your body has a calorie deficit and can't easily burn stored fat, it cuts metabolism instead. With no food, insulin drops, and your body can easily burn stored fat.)

    What I did is not IF, but IF can work better than eating the same number of calories with no breaks. It is different. If you are constantly eating, insulin stays high, and your body lives on just the food you eat. If that isn't enough calories to keep living, it cuts metabolism.



    No. Just no.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    kgb6days wrote: »
    I know CICO is important and I can only share my experience. I was eating 1200 calories/day (or 8,400 calories/week). I measured and weighed my food so I feel like I was as accurate a count as possible. I got stuck on a plateau. 3 weeks I didn't lose an ounce. A MD I work with talked to me about IF - he is a HUGE proponent (mainly for insulin level control). I started 5:2 fasting. On fast days - I drank plenty of calorie free liquids during the day and ate a 500 calorie dinner. On my feast days I ate up to 2000 calories and admit some days I had a little trouble getting all those calories in. That totals 11,000 calories/week - or 2,600 calories MORE in a week than when I was on 1200 cal/day. I did not change my exercise levels (at the time I was running 4days/week). I started dropping weight. I ended up losing all the weight I wanted and almost got too thin - I had to stop the IF. I admit since then I've fallen off the wagon and gained some weight back. IF might not work for everyone - it doesn't work for my husband. But it's what works for me. I believe in fasting. Endocrinologists in my area use IF for insulin resistant patients with great success. Not only do those patients get their insulin levels under control, they lose weight without even trying. There are MANY on here that think IF is stupid/ridiculous/just a way to control CICO, but I ate MORE calories in a weeks time with IF than with CICO - and STILL lost weight. All I can say is try it. If it works for you, great. If not.....


    3 weeks is not a plateau. I go 3 weeks without the scale going down quite often. Shortly thereafter it does go down. This all happens while I skip the AM meal, eat almost all of my calories at lunch, then a snack-sized dinner.

    Also, many people mistakenly believe they need to eat 1200 calories to lose weight while in reality they can eat more and lose weight just fine.
  • Phirrgus
    Phirrgus Posts: 1,894 Member
    NovusDies wrote: »
    kgb6days wrote: »
    I know CICO is important and I can only share my experience. I was eating 1200 calories/day (or 8,400 calories/week). I measured and weighed my food so I feel like I was as accurate a count as possible. I got stuck on a plateau. 3 weeks I didn't lose an ounce. A MD I work with talked to me about IF - he is a HUGE proponent (mainly for insulin level control). I started 5:2 fasting. On fast days - I drank plenty of calorie free liquids during the day and ate a 500 calorie dinner. On my feast days I ate up to 2000 calories and admit some days I had a little trouble getting all those calories in. That totals 11,000 calories/week - or 2,600 calories MORE in a week than when I was on 1200 cal/day. I did not change my exercise levels (at the time I was running 4days/week). I started dropping weight. I ended up losing all the weight I wanted and almost got too thin - I had to stop the IF. I admit since then I've fallen off the wagon and gained some weight back. IF might not work for everyone - it doesn't work for my husband. But it's what works for me. I believe in fasting. Endocrinologists in my area use IF for insulin resistant patients with great success. Not only do those patients get their insulin levels under control, they lose weight without even trying. There are MANY on here that think IF is stupid/ridiculous/just a way to control CICO, but I ate MORE calories in a weeks time with IF than with CICO - and STILL lost weight. All I can say is try it. If it works for you, great. If not.....


    3 weeks is not a plateau. I go 3 weeks without the scale going down quite often. Shortly thereafter it does go down. This all happens while I skip the AM meal, eat almost all of my calories at lunch, then a snack-sized dinner.

    Also, many people mistakenly believe they need to eat 1200 calories to lose weight while in reality they can eat more and lose weight just fine.

    That was my experience during my first 19lb drop. Going from ~1600ish to 1950ish made all the difference in overall well being while still losing weight. And I didn't feel hungry all the time.
  • MichelleSilverleaf
    MichelleSilverleaf Posts: 2,027 Member
    kgb6days wrote: »
    I know CICO is important and I can only share my experience. I was eating 1200 calories/day (or 8,400 calories/week). I measured and weighed my food so I feel like I was as accurate a count as possible. I got stuck on a plateau. 3 weeks I didn't lose an ounce. A MD I work with talked to me about IF - he is a HUGE proponent (mainly for insulin level control). I started 5:2 fasting. On fast days - I drank plenty of calorie free liquids during the day and ate a 500 calorie dinner. On my feast days I ate up to 2000 calories and admit some days I had a little trouble getting all those calories in. That totals 11,000 calories/week - or 2,600 calories MORE in a week than when I was on 1200 cal/day. I did not change my exercise levels (at the time I was running 4days/week). I started dropping weight. I ended up losing all the weight I wanted and almost got too thin - I had to stop the IF. I admit since then I've fallen off the wagon and gained some weight back. IF might not work for everyone - it doesn't work for my husband. But it's what works for me. I believe in fasting. Endocrinologists in my area use IF for insulin resistant patients with great success. Not only do those patients get their insulin levels under control, they lose weight without even trying. There are MANY on here that think IF is stupid/ridiculous/just a way to control CICO, but I ate MORE calories in a weeks time with IF than with CICO - and STILL lost weight. All I can say is try it. If it works for you, great. If not.....

    If you still lost weight CICO was still happening. CICO is always happening, and IF is just a way to control it. It's just as easy to gain weight doing IF as it is keto or any other WOE because it's not a guarantee of weight loss. It works for some, not so much for others. For me I'd easily gain all the weight I've currently lost if I tried it.
  • Prabhatbtmu
    Prabhatbtmu Posts: 1 Member
    edited September 2023
    Let me reply on this. I was a huge sceptic but this is what has happened:
    I was 95 kg in oct 2022. In december i started 16:8 intermittent fasting. Dropped in may for a month and restarted in june 23. I do this for 4-5 days a week, weekends being cheat days. However i have skipped breakfast altogether. On cheat days i take tea with milk and half spoon sugar.
    I have managed to drop to 85 today -25 sept. That is 10 kg loss. This is with nil exercise! However i have reached a plateau it seems a and stuck at 85 for last month so i have stopped sugar intake. From last 3 days i have started brisk walk daily.
    So intermittent fasting Works.. yes it surely does. Just dont have anything except blck coffee or black tea during fasting period and dont hog after that…it will work

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