Anyone incorporate fasting?

KatC_88

Morning!

I am thinking about adding some fasting in to my week. I did the 5:2 several years ago.


How do y'all incorporate fasting in to your week? Does it help?

Also, I am new since 2013 and looking for friends to share encouragements and accountability on here!

TIA!

tinkerbellang83

I do "IF" on weekends although in my world I always did that, I didn't know there was a fancy term for it.

I just have brunch on Saturday/Sunday so that I have more calories for dinner/drinks.

Different things work for different people. It's only useful if it helps you maintain your calorie deficit.

RovP6

I do more of a time-restricted eating than fasting, some would call it intermittent but by definition if you do it all the time it cannot be intermittent . I like to go at least a minimum of 12 hours from my last meal to my first meal of the next day. It generally takes 12 hours to process all food in the gut so that means I'm giving my body the best chance to start afresh every day. Sometimes I stretch the time to 15 or 16 hours but it depends on what I'm doing that day and when I'm working out. On top of that I aim to do a 24 hour fast every fortnight, usually on a non-workout day so I'm not stressing too much.

In terms of it helping, what with? If it's weight loss then it can help simply due to the restricted eating window helping to create a calorie deficit, but you can easily eat way over calories in a daily 8 hour window or go over the top on non-fasting days and completely negate any deficit through fasting.

What is perhaps more contraversial, although there is growing evidence, is the benefits to your body in terms of cell repair that fasting can create. Essentially, the evidence seems to show that your body can only maximise the effort it puts into cell repair when it's not putting effort into digesting food. That kinda makes sense, but it's something that most will have to take on faith as the physical evidence may not be obvious for several years.

Give it a go and see how it goes. If you're someone who likes to eat or someone who doesn't like to go more than a few hours without food then it's not for you. And there's nothing wrong with that. Just find whatever it is that works for you and that you can adhere to.

Hope that helps.

Danp

I don't 'incorporate' fasting as such. I do however eat my calories at a time when I'm naturally most hungry which for me is at night.

No matter how much I eat during the day I am inevitably hungry at night. Conversely I am rarely if ever hungry during the day, particularly when I'm at work and busy so I rarely ever (like maybe once a month) eat lunch.

So almost every day I'll have a light breakfast (maybe 10% of my calories), skip lunch. Sometimes have a small snack mid-afternoon if I'm feel like it (about 5% of my calories) which leaves me 85-90% of my calories for a big dinner at a time I'm naturally hungry with enough calories left over for a nightly treat (couple of fun size chocolates, ice cream, etc).

This is just what comes naturally to me so I'm not 'incorporating' anything or 'doing' fasting anymore than someone who eat 3 meals a day is 'incorporating' regular meals or doing 'meal time eating'.

Clarisse_McClellan

I've started trying 5:2 lately, but I'm not sure I'll be successful at doing it according to the "rules". From what I understand I can only consume 25% of my TDEE before exercise, and it just seems too restrictive. I'm on a "fast" day today and hubby planned chicken alfredo for dinner, so I think I'm going to try keeping my net calories at 500. Honestly, weight loss is just about creating a deficit, and that's what I'll be doing, so I should be okay. *crosses fingers*