Welcome to Debate Club! Please be aware that this is a space for respectful debate, and that your ideas will be challenged here. Please remember to critique the argument, not the author.

Intermittent Fasting - Is it a good idea?

1356

Replies

  • Ironandwine69
    Ironandwine69 Posts: 2,432 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    I think IF is great. But not for me. I get really hungry in the mornings and headachey if I don't eat and it throws off my day. Also I am usually pregnant or breastfeeding so not going to risk it during that time.

    Haha at " usually pregnant or breastfeeding"
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    I think IF is great. But not for me. I get really hungry in the mornings and headachey if I don't eat and it throws off my day. Also I am usually pregnant or breastfeeding so not going to risk it during that time.

    Haha at " usually pregnant or breastfeeding"

    Yea... after this I need a break :s
  • Tankiscool
    Tankiscool Posts: 11,105 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    sardelsa wrote: »
    I think IF is great. But not for me. I get really hungry in the mornings and headachey if I don't eat and it throws off my day. Also I am usually pregnant or breastfeeding so not going to risk it during that time.

    Haha at " usually pregnant or breastfeeding"

    Yea... after this I need a break :s

    I thought it was just a burrito this time? :o:D
  • Tankiscool
    Tankiscool Posts: 11,105 Member
    But OP yes I've been doing IF for like 5 years. It works great for me because I prefer big meals rather than eating 6 times a day.
    Please note IF is not skipping breakfast necessarily. You can arrange the feeding time window anytime it fits your life better.

    I agree with this. Breakfast also just means to break the fast of which we all do. Even doing IF or not. Most people don't eat while they sleep so there is always a bit of a fasting period.
  • JetJaguar
    JetJaguar Posts: 801 Member
    edited June 2019
    I also don't remember breakfast being invented by cereal companies. I'm pretty sure the term comes from breaking the fast, i.e., the first time someone eats when waking up. The word goes back to Middle English, so as old as ~1066, though that's just for the English word, not the concept.

    Strictly speaking, breakfast itself wasn't invented by cereal companies, it was the myth that breakfast "is the most important meal of the day". That was an advertising slogan (Kellogg's? Post? I forget whose) that was repeated so often that it eventually just became accepted as a fact.
  • saundraxo
    saundraxo Posts: 65 Member
    I do intermittent fasting because it is helping me break my addiction to food. I have a set time that I can eat, I am now eating for fuel vs taste.

    Perhaps one day I will go back to eating normally, but I'm not really a breakfast person anyway.

    @betsymoomoo whats your IF times set up like?
  • saundraxo
    saundraxo Posts: 65 Member
    I eat at 10/2/6. That gives me 16 hours of no food for my gut to rest. Works for me.

    @sunnyside1213 is the 16 hours drom the 6p to 10a?
  • Motorsheen
    Motorsheen Posts: 20,508 Member
    I actually do IF 6:30PM to 10:30AM

    Do I get hungry sometimes? Yeah... sure, so what?
  • SlytherinPride2292
    SlytherinPride2292 Posts: 1 Member
    I do 16-21 hour IF. I'm 26 years old, female, and I maintain an active lifestyle, 60 mins of moderate activity, 5 days a week. I've been doing it for about a year or two, doing great, no adverse side effects. Granted, this is me, personally. I can't speak for everyone. :)
  • denise0130
    denise0130 Posts: 4 Member
    I’m thinking of trying it... however, I exercise early in the am so feel I need my whey shake after ....but then I can go until mid-late afternoon w/o eating that by the time dinner cones around, I’m scrambling to get in all my macros, esp protein for the day. Which by not eating enough is actually hurting my weight loss/muscle gain!
  • Khadijah_R_Jacobs
    Khadijah_R_Jacobs Posts: 6 Member
    I just started with IF after I heard about Dr Eric Berg on YouTube and incorporating a Fat Adapted way of eating.

    I tried the Keto way of life 2 years ago and failed miserably because I did not see any weight loss, no mater the amount I worked out or eat within my macros.

    But getting an understanding of your body type & learning to “become healthy to lose the weight” instead of “lose the weight than become healthy” just made so much sense.

    I also want to implore why did eating 2-3 hours become the staple for healthy living when back in the days you had to hunt, kill, gather fruits & veggies and cook your meals

    How often where these people eating when we physically had to get our own food?
    Outside of sickness & disease when antibiotics were not around thy weren’t as overweight or unhealthy as we are today

    Hope this helps
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    @Khadijah_R_Jacobs it was only after I stopped dieting to lose weight and started to eat for better health did I lose 50 pounds without trying and now over 4 years later I have maintained that loss. I do IF some but have been keto for the most part since Oct 2014. Now at 68 I have better health and health markers than at 38.

    Best of continued success.

  • magnusthenerd
    magnusthenerd Posts: 1,207 Member
    JetJaguar wrote: »
    I also don't remember breakfast being invented by cereal companies. I'm pretty sure the term comes from breaking the fast, i.e., the first time someone eats when waking up. The word goes back to Middle English, so as old as ~1066, though that's just for the English word, not the concept.

    Strictly speaking, breakfast itself wasn't invented by cereal companies, it was the myth that breakfast "is the most important meal of the day". That was an advertising slogan (Kellogg's? Post? I forget whose) that was repeated so often that it eventually just became accepted as a fact.

    If that was what we being referenced as invented by companies, it was stated in a way that wasn't clear. Framed that way doesn't seem particularly relevant either. That companies may have championed breakfast as most important doesn't show something unusual or wrong in having breakfast. It seemed like there was an implication that breakfast is unnatural.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    JetJaguar wrote: »
    I also don't remember breakfast being invented by cereal companies. I'm pretty sure the term comes from breaking the fast, i.e., the first time someone eats when waking up. The word goes back to Middle English, so as old as ~1066, though that's just for the English word, not the concept.

    Strictly speaking, breakfast itself wasn't invented by cereal companies, it was the myth that breakfast "is the most important meal of the day". That was an advertising slogan (Kellogg's? Post? I forget whose) that was repeated so often that it eventually just became accepted as a fact.

    If that was what we being referenced as invented by companies, it was stated in a way that wasn't clear. Framed that way doesn't seem particularly relevant either. That companies may have championed breakfast as most important doesn't show something unusual or wrong in having breakfast. It seemed like there was an implication that breakfast is unnatural.

    Correct, and I'm pretty sure that's not what the prior poster was trying to say.

    It's well known and commonly stated on MFP that "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" is a myth and it's totally fine to skip breakfast if that's your natural pattern. Also, no one promotes eating lots of snacks and mini meals unless someone finds that is helpful for them. But that also means that there's no reason to eat in a window or only once or twice a day or to skip breakfast unless that is a pattern that is helpful for a particular individual.
  • RachsLosses
    RachsLosses Posts: 103 Member
    I have just started experimenting with IF using a variety of timings. I find it easier to do 16:8 through the week and then I try a longer fast on weekends. I'm just playing around at the moment but trying to get into the process of making active decisions about my consumption as opposed to inactive. I'm a massive CICO person and have had a lot of success with this in the past but trying IF to get back on the control train :smile: Feel free to add me and let's see how this goes!
  • KrazyKrissyy
    KrazyKrissyy Posts: 322 Member
    I can't intermittent fast, at least not without health consequences. Last time I tried IF, I almost went into a hypoglycemic coma (was hospitalized). That's when I stopped completely.