Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle & Tracking

foodmom

I am new to the lifestyle of intermittent fasting - currently fasting between 14 and 16 hours. Experts say not to track calories, points, etc. but to rely on intuition and listening to one's body to know when to eat and when to stop. I am curious how many people on here who following IF still track calories and macros?

wilson10102018

Hahaha! That's the strategy that got most of us here. If we had good intuition and stopped when we had enough to eat no one would need any diet approach. Jesse Ventura said it best: "just push back from the table." Easy, right?

L1zardQueen

I still track the calories consumed. Even if you don’t count those pesky calories, your body still does.

janejellyroll

Several years ago, I tried IF without any sort of calorie tracking. It turns out that my "intuition" is to eat more than my body needs (which is why I had excess weight in the first place). My personal experience is that it is really hard to "intuit" your way into a deficit. Think about it: if we intuitively ate less than we need, historically we would have been at a huge evolutionary disadvantage. The people who ate well when they could were those who were more successful at passing on their genes. Now that we're in a situation where most of us are lucky to have more food than we need, we've sometimes got to use techniques to moderate our intake to an appropriate level.

Thoin

foodmom wrote: »

I am new to the lifestyle of intermittent fasting - currently fasting between 14 and 16 hours. Experts say not to track calories, points, etc. but to rely on intuition and listening to one's body to know when to eat and when to stop. I am curious how many people on here who following IF still track calories and macros?

I hope to one day be at this point that I know when to stop eating. That being said, I do know that eating slowly helps with feeling full. It was a game changer for me but not a magic wand.

bombshell1229

I don't count calories doing IF but I keep food diary to be mindful of what I'm eating. Also just common sense. 2 cooked meals with lean protein, whole grains, plenty veg, and some fats. Then snack on fruit and some tasty treats.

Pupowl

Intuition wouldn't work for me. I count my calories every day. IF helps me a lot with eating less in general though. I used to just graze all day, now I have 3 set points/times when I eat and I am very rarely hungry.

andielyn

I'm a little late to reply. I log my food because I am interested in seeing what I'm eating but I am not calorie-restricting. I find I am having a lot of appetite correction, and not overeating. This was not true when I first started, but I wasn't doing it correctly (for me) and allowed myself to get too hungry and I'd overeat. It takes a little time to figure out what works best for you, so tinker with both when your eating window is and for how long. Also focusing on "clean" fasting helps.

Safari_Gal_

foodmom wrote: »

I am new to the lifestyle of intermittent fasting - currently fasting between 14 and 16 hours. Experts say not to track calories, points, etc. but to rely on intuition and listening to one's body to know when to eat and when to stop. I am curious how many people on here who following IF still track calories and macros?

Whenever I’ve done IF — I’ve still tracked all calories.

Ramadan is coming up — fasting between sunrise and sundown is observed — many observers I know still track. Just a different eating window.

lemurcat2

I am eating in an IF schedule now, and I still track.

Generally when tracking I eat within my cals without thinking about it -- this is true when I eat in an IF schedule like now or when I lost most of my weight in 2014 and ate 3 meals and sometimes dessert. IMO, this is common when one tracks and not really about IF vs not.

trinati2001

I also track with IF. I use a 16:8 schedule and drink lots of water in the morning. I started with IF because I need to feel really full after a meal. If I have 3 small means and two snacks I’m never really “full” so then I will binge (I fall off the diet wagon hard and it takes months to get back on). IF with a lot of water has really helped me get over the binge cravings.

I have a hard time skipping breakfast on the weekends when I need to cook for the kids/husband. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to skip a meal when everyone else is eating?

LtHammerhead

I don’t see why you would track? 8 hours is plenty of time to eat a lot of food.

I find my first meal after fasting tends to be large then the rest of my time eating is very light