Fasting advice pls, thanks.

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1MinuteWithTina
1MinuteWithTina Posts: 65 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I was planning to fast during the day and eat all my calories in the evening after work but I started exercising today which means I have even more calories to eat.

It seems it'll be difficult to eat all my calories in the evening but should be OK if I spread it out throughout the day. Do you think I should do this or does fasting have it's benefits also? If I don't eat enough, MFP frowns at me. Thank you.

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  • kwest_4_fitness
    kwest_4_fitness Posts: 819 Member
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    You can try different fasting windows. I do 14/10, my husband does 16/8. These seem to work for us fairly well. I think the best thing to do is see what works for you.
  • MarilynEuseary
    MarilynEuseary Posts: 9 Member
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    Bodytransform, for the sake of God, please fast 16 hours per day and spread your calories out over a period of 8 hours.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    Bodytransform wrote: »
    It seems it'll be difficult to eat all my calories in the evening but should be OK if I spread it out throughout the day.

    So spread it out throughout the day - keep it simple, avoid making a difficult task even more difficult.
    If your time restriction doesn't help you eat a suitable amount of food there's really no point in you doing it.
  • 1MinuteWithTina
    1MinuteWithTina Posts: 65 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    if those exercise calories are accurate,

    Thank you. The calories were pulled over from Fitbit. I had nothing to do with it except exercise and wear the fitbit, lol.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,419 Member
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    Bodytransform wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    if those exercise calories are accurate,

    Thank you. The calories were pulled over from Fitbit. I had nothing to do with it except exercise and wear the fitbit, lol.

    Depending on the nature of the exercise, a heart rate monitor estimate can be reasonable or unreasonable. In brief, they can be decent for steady-state moderate-intensity cardio, but likely to overestimate intervals (especially high-intensity intervals), or anything with a significant strength component, especially overhead strength (including high-rep/low-resistance cardio/strength classes or videos).

    You mention starting to exercise today. If you're truly a beginner to exercise (or resuming after a fairly long hiatus), you'd be a little more likely to see an overestimate from a heart-rate-based device.
  • fitnessguy266
    fitnessguy266 Posts: 150 Member
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    lgfrie wrote: »
    My two cents: if you just started exercising, it's probably better to continue with your normal food patterns for a while rather than getting into fasting. Introducing too many changes at once can sometimes cause the whole project to go off the rails. Lock down your new exercise routine, learn to hit your calorie target religiously while doing so, and in a month, if you're still interested in IF, then sure give it a shot.

    IF has changed my whole relationship with food and my life; I'm a huge advocate of it in general, but it doesn't always fit, and in some cases it may fit down the road but not right now. Also, it is not really going to do much for you that simply hitting a calorie target and getting exercise won't accomplish all on their own.

    IF is a bit challenging at first, though once it gets easier, it gets a lot easier and then becomes a stupidly easy way to lose weight, which is what so many people like about it. But at first, it can be a challenging adjustment. Do you really need another challenge layered on top of your new exercise program right now?

    Great advice, I personally choose to stick with IF because of how it helped me positively improve my relationship with food...adherence over time with this strategy can help weight loss goal challenges a bit easier...which in turn, makes it sustainable...which is the ultimate goal.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
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    There are so many paths to success. There's no "one right way" that's optimal for everyone. There are MFP commenters I admire who lost an impressive amount of weight (~100 lb) and lost the majority of it on alternate day fasting or OMAD before gradually adjusting to a more typical eating pattern with several meals a day. OMAD would kill me. I rather dislike feeling so full I'm distended, and if I ate all my calories in One Meal A Day, that would be the result. But for people who are accustomed to and (for now) need that full feeling, it may be a great way to start.

    Experiment and make critically honest observations on yourself. If your intake lags significantly and habitually (i.e. deficit bigger than planned), you may find it's not sustainable for you long term. No big deal. Try splitting it into two meals over a 4 hour window. Or 3 meals over an 8 hour window. You get the idea. Lots of paths to success. Find the one that you enjoy most.
  • 1MinuteWithTina
    1MinuteWithTina Posts: 65 Member
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    Thank you
  • kristen8000
    kristen8000 Posts: 747 Member
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    When I have left over calories like that I think "Hum, room for booze". It happens so rare that I get kind of excited!
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 5,948 Member
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    Fasting is a tool to help you restrict calories without feeling like you are restricting calories. Fat loss = CI<CO, that's it. Find a way that causes you the least amount of deprivation and discomfort. No magic to fasting...
  • mullanphylane
    mullanphylane Posts: 172 Member
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    Fasting, as other fad diets/techniques, are not long term solutions. Check with your doctor before attempting.

    I'll give myself as an example of what can go wrong. My blood sugar (glucose & A1C) has been high/pre-diabetic for more nearly 35 years. Six months ago I decided to get serious about loosing a large chunk of my 70 excess pounds and tried several different ways of fasting. Because I didn't provide enough carbs spread out over the day, my blood sugar levels lept nearly off the charts. I am now, officially, a type 2 diabetic, and I struggle to control it.

    Not saying that fasting is bad, just that it should be undertaken with advice from a physician and a checkup to make sure your body will safely handle it.
  • SwissAnnie
    SwissAnnie Posts: 1 Member
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    Funny enough, I read a very interesting article yesterday about intermittent fasting.

    https://trailrunnermag.com/training/fasted-training-may-have-long-term-risks-especially-for-female-athletes.html

    Enjoy 😉

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