Intermittent fasting

neeneileen

Today I'm going to try intermittent fasting. Any advice for that?

Hannahwalksfar

Still stay in you daily calorie goal

snickerscharlie

Intermittent Fasting is only helpful if it is something you can do without struggling *and* if it helps you remain the the required caloric deficit to lose weight.

Other than that, there's no magic or extra benefits to doing IF, despite what you may have read or heard.

lgfrie

There isn't much advice one can provide about IF. The nice thing about IF is that it's so incredible simple. As long as you don't eat outside your eating window and stick to your calorie goal within the window, well, that's all there is to it - you're doing IF.

I suppose, after 4 months of doing IF 24/7, I could say that eating lowER carb can make IF a little easier, because the sugar highs and lows do impact appetite and what you want with IF is not to be having sugar highs and crashes throughout the day, which can make you very hungry and lethargic. For instance, stuffing yourself with carbs at the tail end of the eating window (very common at first, since that's usually dinner) can leave you with a major sugar rush followed by a crash which you won't be able to smooth out with additional food for many, many hours. That said, I used to eat lowER carb but now I just eat whatever I want within the eating window, and sometimes it's high carb. Once you get used to IF, which takes a few weeks, your appetite goes WAY down overall and some of these questions become moot.

Also, it's easier to start small, like a 10 hour eating window, which is pretty much "no snacking after dinner", than to dive in with One Meal A Day and other hardcore versions of IF. And you won't get any less weight loss for it.

NovusDies

Call it an experiment. Give it a week or 2 and then decide if it is making it easier for you to accomplish your goals or harder. If you are absolutely miserable or lethargic eat something.

sijomial

There are many different forms of IF so would be helpful to know which one you are referring to and why you are chosing it.

e.g.
You could be eating nothing at all today, or 500 cals or your fully daily calorie allowance for whatever your goal is to lose, maintain or gain weight.

brittlb07

IF helps me stay in my caloric goal. I’ve found I like big meals. So by skipping breakfast I can have a decent lunch and decent dinner or sometimes I have a NICE portioned late lunch with a small dinner time snack. My body (and mind!) prefers being able to enjoy full meals. It’s the only way I’ve maintained this 1300 calorie lifestyle since January! Down 25 pounds. About 5 pounds to go!

Deipneus

I intermittently fast instinctively and only recently learned it's a thing.