IF and women

amberfay85

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

Lietchi

When you say 'less effective', what effect are you talking about?

There's nothing miraculous about IF, it just helps people to stay within their calorie goal by restricting the number of hours you can eat.

I did a light version of IF (no food between 11pm and noon) for the first six months of my weight loss. It worked great since it made it easier to stay within my calorie goal. I've heard people say that their hunger subsided and they got used to doing IF. I never stopped being hungry in the morning (but I didn't find it hard to handle, only embarrassing to have my stomach grumble loudly during morning meetings for example).
When I realised my protein intake was low, I stopped doing IF and opted for a high protein breakfast instead. My weight loss continued as expected. Slightly less easy to stay within my calorie goal, but my protein intake was much better.

As for my monthly cycle: I always have a few days where my appetite increases (craving carbs and salty snacks). I eat at maintenance those days, but no changes between doing IF and not doing IF.

L1zardQueen

I do a sort of an IF, eat/stop/eat, no lunch. It helps with keeping my calories in my daily goal. Don’t believe the hype.

Megan_smartiepants1970

I do 16:8 IF daily ...I have tons of energy ....I just got back to my walks last week (recovered from my 2nd hernia surgery) so the scale isn't cooperating at the moment

wunderkindking

I basically do OMAD+ a snack or two in the evening - basically 20/4 IF. It's nothing but a convenient way to stay in a calorie deficit and eating during the time of day I'm hungry. That's... it. No matter when I am eating I want more before my period, so eat maintenance, and the only energy issue I've ever had was when i massively under ate calories (unintentionally) for a couple of days.

titchy_michelle

huskymom85 wrote: »

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

I have been IF but dirty fasting since March 16th and I’ve lost 19lb. The first day was easy but after that for the first 2 weeks it was hard I had bad headaches and my stomach sounded like it was screaming for food but it got easier

SnifterPug

I have been doing 16:8 since before IF was a "thing" because I discovered that breakfast does not suit me. I train better fasted and if I eat breakfast I simply wake the hunger monster and eat more during the day. It is purely a means of calorie control that suits me. I used it to lose weight (77lb) and maintain the loss. It suits me well and I feel great.

kshama2001

huskymom85 wrote: »

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

Did you have a link to this research you can share?

amberfay85

kshama2001 wrote: »

huskymom85 wrote: »

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

Did you have a link to this research you can share?

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#who-shouldnt

amberfay85

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-ways-to-do-intermittent-fasting#TOC_TITLE_HDR_8

amberfay85

I’m not exactly sure how reliable of a source “healthline” is...but I’m a busy lady who doesn’t have a ton of time to sit and browse the internet for hours on end reading everything there is to read on a subject so I just kinda believed what it said 🤷🏼‍♀️ Maybe it’s way off

penguinmama87

I did it for a bit between two of my kids, after I was done breastfeeding. It "worked" in that I lost weight, but as soon as I got pregnant and it wasn't safe for me to do anymore, I gained all the lost weight back and then some. I wasn't calorie counting at all then.

I'm back down to that weight now, while still breastfeeding a baby and eating three meals a day plus usually one snack. After she weans, I might skip breakfast, but just to help me maintain a calorie deficit. I have more weight to lose and I realized I honestly don't care that much if I eat breakfast or not, but I will for the sake of my health and baby's health if that's what's best for us at the time.

I like something I can adapt to any state of my life, though, and IF isn't that, which might be part of what makes it not super great for women.

kshama2001

huskymom85 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

huskymom85 wrote: »

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

Did you have a link to this research you can share?

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#who-shouldnt

Here's the relevant part:

Should Women Fast?

There is some evidence that intermittent fasting may not be as beneficial for women as it is for men.

For example, one study showed that it improved insulin sensitivity in men, but worsened blood sugar control in women (33).

Though human studies on this topic are unavailable, studies in rats have found that intermittent fasting can make female rats emaciated, masculinized, infertile and cause them to miss cycles (34, 35).

There are a number of anecdotal reports of women whose menstrual period stopped when they started doing IF and went back to normal when they resumed their previous eating pattern.

For these reasons, women should be careful with intermittent fasting.

We non-scientists can safely classify rat studies as "way too preliminary for us to care about."

For the anecdotical reports, most likely what happened here is that these women cut their calories too drastically and that is why they lost their periods.

Re "one study showed that it improved insulin sensitivity in men, but worsened blood sugar control in women" - the study here was for Alternate Day Fasting. What type were you planning on doing?

kshama2001

huskymom85 wrote: »

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-ways-to-do-intermittent-fasting#TOC_TITLE_HDR_8

What type were you planning on doing?

What I see most here currently is something like 16:8. (Previously I saw 5:2 more.)

This says "It’s generally recommended that women only fast 14–15 hours because they seem to do better with slightly shorter fasts" which is certainly a legit form of IF.

kshama2001

huskymom85 wrote: »

I’m not exactly sure how reliable of a source “healthline” is...but I’m a busy lady who doesn’t have a ton of time to sit and browse the internet for hours on end reading everything there is to read on a subject so I just kinda believed what it said 🤷🏼‍♀️ Maybe it’s way off

Here, I will save you some time. However you choose to create a calorie deficit will work for weight loss:



I have no issues with the healthline info. However, I believe I saw more nuance than you did.

yirara

kshama2001 wrote: »

huskymom85 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

huskymom85 wrote: »

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

Did you have a link to this research you can share?

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#who-shouldnt

Here's the relevant part:

Should Women Fast?

There is some evidence that intermittent fasting may not be as beneficial for women as it is for men.

For example, one study showed that it improved insulin sensitivity in men, but worsened blood sugar control in women (33).

Though human studies on this topic are unavailable, studies in rats have found that intermittent fasting can make female rats emaciated, masculinized, infertile and cause them to miss cycles (34, 35).

There are a number of anecdotal reports of women whose menstrual period stopped when they started doing IF and went back to normal when they resumed their previous eating pattern.

For these reasons, women should be careful with intermittent fasting.

We non-scientists can safely classify rat studies as "way too preliminary for us to care about."

For the anecdotical reports, most likely what happened here is that these women cut their calories too drastically and that is why they lost their periods.

Re "one study showed that it improved insulin sensitivity in men, but worsened blood sugar control in women" - the study here was for Alternate Day Fasting. What type were you planning on doing?

I worked in the Middle East for a few years. One of my friends was an endocrinologist there. He said he'd advise women not to fast during Ramadan as he made similar observations overall, but of course that was not socially acceptable. But there's indeed no proper research on this. Thus who knows. cause and effect is not always that clear.

natasor1

I m doing IF long before it was invented. I was geting up at 5am, going to work and eating only when all work was done b/c at work I could not have any breakes for food. So it was only 5pm. then dinner was at 7-8 pm. This was my schedule for many years, say for 25 years. I was always scared bc all health professionals dictated us to eat breakfast as soon as we wake up and this is only healthy life style. They predicted me early heart attac and stroke. But time brought correctives in that theory. I m now 67 y/o, feel very well, my heart works like eccellent motor, I have no weight issue. Actually, I have no issues at all. I keep the same regiment at my retirement. Breakfast at 12-1pm, and one dinner at 6pm. Once a week I do fasting 1, 2 or 3 days. Mostly 1 day. So from that prospective the IF is very advantageouse for everybody : man and woman.
It may be interesting, but the fasting skill can be trained, like training muscles. If start from shorter periods to advance to longer. Everybody can do it. If you remember the human history was all the time about food shortage. Not everybody not everyday could have breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is only a modern time fenomen. The human beens was alive and passed thru all obstacles. W e are actually doing better in state of shortage of food. The headach, feeling week and stomach growlings are only a blood glucose game of your brain and cells mytohondia inoficiency. They used to have high blood glucose for such a long time, that even small drop of that level creates a chaos in the metabolic balance, so they send your brain a signal to eat.

kshama2001

yirara wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

huskymom85 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

huskymom85 wrote: »

Hey y’all,

Ive been considering intermittent fasting, but after some research I am seeing that it’s possible less effective for women than men. I’m wondering if there are any women here who have used IF and have had great results with it? How was your energy? How did you feel overall day to day? Did you drop pounds/inches? Did you have any side effects with monthly cycle?

I’d also be interested in hearing from anyone who used IF after being diagnosed with insulin resistance and how it may have affected that.

Thanks for reading.
Amber 🙂

Did you have a link to this research you can share?

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#who-shouldnt

Here's the relevant part:

Should Women Fast?

There is some evidence that intermittent fasting may not be as beneficial for women as it is for men.

For example, one study showed that it improved insulin sensitivity in men, but worsened blood sugar control in women (33).

Though human studies on this topic are unavailable, studies in rats have found that intermittent fasting can make female rats emaciated, masculinized, infertile and cause them to miss cycles (34, 35).

There are a number of anecdotal reports of women whose menstrual period stopped when they started doing IF and went back to normal when they resumed their previous eating pattern.

For these reasons, women should be careful with intermittent fasting.

We non-scientists can safely classify rat studies as "way too preliminary for us to care about."

For the anecdotical reports, most likely what happened here is that these women cut their calories too drastically and that is why they lost their periods.

Re "one study showed that it improved insulin sensitivity in men, but worsened blood sugar control in women" - the study here was for Alternate Day Fasting. What type were you planning on doing?

I worked in the Middle East for a few years. One of my friends was an endocrinologist there. He said he'd advise women not to fast during Ramadan as he made similar observations overall, but of course that was not socially acceptable. But there's indeed no proper research on this. Thus who knows. cause and effect is not always that clear.

This made me curious as to exactly how long the hours of Ramadan fasting are and the answer for 2021 is that it depended on where you live and is easier the further south you are.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/7/ramadan-2021-fasting-hours-around-the-world



...In extreme northernmost cities such as Longyearbyen, Norway, where the sun does not set from April 20 to August 22, religious rulings, or fatwas, have been issued to follow timings in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, or the nearest Muslim country.

goal06082021

@kshama2001 that's fascinating!

I'm skeptical of Healthline as a source in general, it looks and feels content-farmy. But OP, you could just...try IF and see how you feel, pretty sure your uterus won't explode if you go more than 4 hours without eating or anything like that. 16:8 (16 hours of fasting (which includes 8 hours of sleeping, tbf), 8-hour eating window) seems to be the most popular, seems like not too much of an adjustment for someone currently observing the most common Western eating patterns (3 meals a day, morning/noon/night).

andielyn

I am a female intermittent faster. I didn't read the article, but IF is plenty safe for women. I generally do 16:8 but sometimes my fasts are 15 hours and sometimes 19 hours, I listen to my body and fast accordingly. IF is not appropriate for kids and teens since they are still growing (male and female) and not appropriate for pregnant or breastfeeding females for the same reason (growing a baby.)

Peachesanddinosaur

I'm female and I do omad. I feel great and I lose a few pounds a week. I'm also breastfeeding, but I eat a healthy diet and constantly monitor my milk supply.

Fasting works by creating a caloric deficit, it's just easier for me to eat it all at once and move on with my day.

mikethewriter

I eat only during an eight hour window during the day and fast for the remaining 16 hours. It really supports weight loss and improves blood sugar as well.

KiyaK

I do intermittent fasting, but only 12:12. Stretching it much longer has never worked for my body (extreme fatigue & mood swings) or schedule. Then I recently found out I have Gilbert's Syndrome, and long fasting is contraindicated for that condition. So definitely listen to your body. If it's not working, don't do it harder!

Also, Jenn Pike, who has the podcast Simplocity Sessions talks about intermittent fasting for women & how it affect hormones. Maybe check her out.

fr3smyl

I have been practicing IF for the past ten months and have lost 50 pounds. I am 42F and used 18:6, OMAD, ADF, and other schedules as I felt the urge. It helped to give a gut a rest from some painful IBS symptoms and gave my slow system time to fully digest everything. I had no extra problems on my cycle. I mainly eat between the hours of 1000-1500.

jenpobble

I did 18:6 earlier this year. It worked as in I lost weight because I was eating 2meals instead of 3. I skipped supper because I needed calories earlier in the day to be alert for work. Also I cannot get going without tea/coffee and I need milk in it or I get stomachache.

I gave it up because my period stopped and I was left feeling like I had permanent PMS. I was grumpy, emotional and worst of all seemed stuck at the hungriest part of my cycle.

callsitlikeiseeit

the only thing IF does, for anyone, is help some to limit the number of calories they take in.

same way low carb helps some lose weight.
or any other 'diet'.

its a calorie reduction tool (barring you are not having to do it for some medical purpose)

all i know is that i could take in a ridiculous number of calories in an 8 hour window if i thought that was the only time of day i could eat.

Walkywalkerson

I play around with IF it works for me to limit my calorie intake 16 / 8 and 20 / 4
I also try to keep it fairly lowish carb which really helps me with hunger and cravings.
I don't do it every day - I have a days off over the weekend or if I'm going out to socialise.
I like wine and pizza 😁
I'm 37 lbs down.
I've had no problems with my menstrual cycle other than the usual few days of crazy 🤣
But that has nothing to do with IF.
My energy levels feel better the longer I fast - if I've had a carb heavy weekend ( like this weekend) it takes longer for the hunger to diminish and I feel weak and hangry for a while.
I'm fasting today so it will be difficult- but I'll wake up in the morning full of beans (hopefully)

Caralarma

I've never understood why not eating in the morning has become this newfound 'diet' with a fancy name. I've been doing it for years because I'm not hungry in the morning and it allows me to save calories. Simple.

lady_bug_jd

I've been doing IF 8:16 for a few years now. I haven't personally noticed that it has helped me lose any weight. I lose weight when I'm restricting and watching calories. I continue to IF because that is my natural eating pattern.

At the beginning of Covid-19 I gained about 8lbs while still doing IF. We ordered in a lot more than usual, were eating lots of comfort foods, chips, and sweets so my calories were higher even though the same eating window. I'm now back on track with eating healthy eating and watching my calories and have started losing weight.

I've never noticed that IF gave me more energy and it hasn't impacted my cycle.

My partner absolutely believes that IF helped him lose the last few pounds that he wanted to lose although he also gained weight during Covid while continuing to do IF.

lady_bug_jd

Caralarma wrote: »

I've never understood why not eating in the morning has become this newfound 'diet' with a fancy name. I've been doing it for years because I'm not hungry in the morning and it allows me to save calories. Simple.

I think it helps those who are night time snackers to have a cut-off time for eating.

neanderthin

For weight loss IF really isn't going to do anything it's still CICO. Fasting is for potential health and longevity, not weight loss. imo