Alternate day fasting here

Stud47
Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
edited August 2021 in Health and Weight Loss
Im 51 yo man and i have done fasting (intermittent fasting, water fasting, dry fasting) for many years and that helped me keep a good health and shape but the last 5 years i neglected myself and im now in a bad shape and i decided to go back to my old lifestyle (sport, healthy food and fasting). I like fasting very much

On August 1th, i decided to begin my journey of Alternate day fasting (ADF) and im keeping on track. Would like to have some support or buddies who does the ADF.

All fasting are good modified ADF allows up to 500 cal the fasting days but i personally prefer True ADF which is no calories on fasting days.

Alternate-day fasting (ADF) is an intermittent fasting approach but the period of fast is extended.

The basic idea is that you fast on one day, and then eat what you want the next day preferably in a small window ( my eating window is from 1pm to 6pm, sometimes to 7pm )

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Im doing one day zero sugar and the other day i eat normal but with no excess.

When you eat more food than you can readily expend the excess energy is stored away for later use. When we eat our insulin levels increase and help to store energy in two ways. Sugars form long chains and are stored as glycogen in the liver. This energy source is for immediate use. There is limited storage space in the liver so; once capacity is reached the liver then begins to turn excess energy into fat to be stored on the body. There is no limit to how much fat can be stored on the body.

The catch is that you can't access the energy stored as fat until you've first depleted the liver of sugars. So, if you continue with high eating frequencies you are keeping your body in a constant fed state your body will continue to get energy from incoming food sources never depleting the liver of sugar and never allowing your body to access the stored fat on your body thereby leading to weight gain.

The key to unlocking the fat stores is Fasting.

With ADF especially True ADF (zero cal on fasting days), you are quite certain to lose weight because its a lifestyle more than calories deficit that ends most of the time by regaining all the weight losted.



Replies

  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    You are right ADF works for me personally way better than calories counting because It’s keep me on track comparing to other methods I have tried. I’m not trying to convince people that ADF is the best for all, it’s not one size fits all but I wanted to share my personal journey here.
  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    Day 1 ADF was 1st August.
    SW: 188.5 lbs
    CW: coming on saturday 7
    Weight loss : coming on saturday 7

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    Next update saturday :smile:
  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    edited August 2021
    Im noy specialist in physiology my field is way far from this, i found those statements somewhere in a site that refers to Dr Fung a famous nephrologist. He's a world-leading expert on intermittent fasting and low carb, especially for treating people with type 2 diabet.

    Those statements are correct or wrong?, im not an expert to confirm it and its not the purpose of my post and i dont want to talk about this anymore.

    SO forget the last part of my post (the physiological statements) and focus on my personal experience :smile:

    Thanks anyway
  • azuki
    azuki Posts: 38 Member
    sometimes i experiment. i’m not needing to lose weight- 111lb at 7% 5’4’’ but ill do 3500cal one day and 500 cal next. clean eating tho. mainly healthy fats, good protein and no sugars or refined carbs. no change overall.
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    While I'm glad you personally have had success with ADF....

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34135111/

    Alternate-day fasting less effectively reduces body fat mass than a matched degree of daily energy restriction and without evidence of fasting-specific effects on metabolic regulation or cardiovascular health.
  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    edited August 2021
    Thank you guys for your input and comments. I totally agree that ADF could be a good boost for someone to loose weight and motivate him. I also agree for a long term and maintaining weight some adjustment have to be made :

    example : personally right now i like ADF but who knows i might switch later (or combine) from ''True ADF'' (zero calories intake at fasting days) to Modified ADF (that allows some calories up to 600 for men), to OMAD, to Simple intermittent fasting 18/6. Personally i noticed in the last 2 years that intermittent fasting 18/6 or 20/24 helps me more to maintain weigh than losing it but its something that i like too. I like also sometimes do water fasting for few days or even dry fasting.

    Many combinations are possible and sure we have to adapt our method to different situations.
    so i totally agree with your statements ahoy_m8.

    There are lots of ways to be successful losing weight. There is no one right way that works best for everyone, and there may not be one right way that works forever with the same person. Everyone has to adapt on occasion.

  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    edited August 2021
    JBanx256 wrote: »
    While I'm glad you personally have had success with ADF....

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34135111/

    Alternate-day fasting less effectively reduces body fat mass than a matched degree of daily energy restriction and without evidence of fasting-specific effects on metabolic regulation or cardiovascular health.

    It makes a sens that daily controlled calories is more effective in losing body fat than ADF and prevents from losing lot of muscles. Unfortunately, im someone who is not very disciplined on counting calories lol, for me i can handle easily not eating at all and when eating not counting than calorie counting. the good news i do some bodybuilding to attenuate muscle lost.
  • JBanx256
    JBanx256 Posts: 1,479 Member
    Stud47 wrote: »

    It makes a sens that daily controlled calories is more effective in losing body fat than ADF and prevents from losing lot of muscles. .

    Just to clarify, in the study, the ADF group did have calories controlled. "75:75" is the linear/daily caloric restriction group running a 25% daily deficit, "0:150" is the zero-calorie ADF group consuming a 50% surplus on feeding days (thus making it the deficit equivalent of 75:75), and "0:200" is the zero-calorie ADF group with a 100% surplus on feeding days (thus functioning as a eucaloric balance, or maintenance model).

    Once again, if ADF works for you - fits your preferences & your lifestyle & you have success with it - then keep on keepin' on! :) I was just sharing something that I found somewhat pertinent to the discussion, especially if others are considering it. Absolutely not diminishing your results!
  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    edited August 2021
    JBanx256 wrote: »
    Stud47 wrote: »

    It makes a sens that daily controlled calories is more effective in losing body fat than ADF and prevents from losing lot of muscles. .

    Just to clarify, in the study, the ADF group did have calories controlled. "75:75" is the linear/daily caloric restriction group running a 25% daily deficit, "0:150" is the zero-calorie ADF group consuming a 50% surplus on feeding days (thus making it the deficit equivalent of 75:75), and "0:200" is the zero-calorie ADF group with a 100% surplus on feeding days (thus functioning as a eucaloric balance, or maintenance model).

    Once again, if ADF works for you - fits your preferences & your lifestyle & you have success with it - then keep on keepin' on! :) I was just sharing something that I found somewhat pertinent to the discussion, especially if others are considering it. Absolutely not diminishing your results!

    Thanks :)

    0+1.5 in 2 days makes 1.5/2 = 75 % so then its 25% daily deficit.

    I wont lie my formula is more restrictive. I do 0+1, my daily deficit is 50 %.. I know it could have some bad effects on muscles but doing some bodybuilding will help attenuate the loss.

    Few years ago and again its my own experience :) i hade a checkup and my doctor told me that my glycemia was high, cholesterol too and other indicators were bad too. i did IF and sport and 3 months later all my results were improved, the doctor was surprised but when i told him what i did he said that's just losing weight helps improving the checkup results and agreed that fasting has its benefices.
  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    edited August 2021
    Hi week update

    Sunday
    SW : 190 lbs
    PW : 188.5 lbs
    CW : 182.87 lbs

    5.63 lbs loss
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    Hi OP

    I also just started ADF this week. I tried normal IF a few years ago (living out of country where I couldn't really know how my food was being made so it was an easier way of creating a deficit) and had great success.
    My work schedule changed and IF was no longer as convenient so I thought I would try out ADF instead. I'm way too early to see whether this is the right fit or not, but i also personally find it easier to just have a time period where i don't eat at all (or very very little) to create a deficit instead of needing to very carefully monitor a smaller deficit each day. I can see that this approach would not be the best thing for anyone who has a history with ED's or why some people would prefer to eat at 75% every day instead. I've done calorie counting long enough that I generally know (give or take) how much I'm eating, and my plan is to still track on MFP so that i dont go overboard.

    I was wondering for those who do ADF how they arrange their exercise? Like, do you go easier on fast days and not workout as hard (or at all) those days? Or do you find that after an initial adjustment period your energy levels do not fluctuate on fast days?
  • Stud47
    Stud47 Posts: 389 Member
    Welcome on board jelleigh. Personnaly this year i exercice on my eating days but im planning to adjust it in few weeks and exercice on fasting days too because i find indeed that my energy level increases the more my body get used to ADF.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Just suggest you keep the fasting day workouts to something non-intense. Walking comes to mind.

    Because of the resources you've listed - I know you've also read about being fat adapted which is a bunch of crap the way it's normally applied.
    As several have stated your body already knew how and was indeed burning fat for majority of daily time.

    What became fat adapted was your brain energy usage for about 400-500 calories worth of glycogen now to fat ultimately.

    But you push your body up the intensity level there is NOT enough oxygen to oxidize just fat and therefore glycogen will be used at some point to greater and greater %.

    Depending on your diet for the eating day, you could easily put body into a state where there is not enough stored glycogen to handle those needs, fat isn't fast enough, lactic acid isn't fast or abundant enough, and protein will be converted for usage - what's floating around already in blood stream and available, and what can be broken down to use.
    Not saying that will happen - but low carb on eating days, intense workouts or anaerobic only - you can get there.
    Not a good state.

    Just be careful.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    jelleigh wrote: »
    Hi OP

    I also just started ADF this week. I tried normal IF a few years ago (living out of country where I couldn't really know how my food was being made so it was an easier way of creating a deficit) and had great success.
    My work schedule changed and IF was no longer as convenient so I thought I would try out ADF instead. I'm way too early to see whether this is the right fit or not, but i also personally find it easier to just have a time period where i don't eat at all (or very very little) to create a deficit instead of needing to very carefully monitor a smaller deficit each day. I can see that this approach would not be the best thing for anyone who has a history with ED's or why some people would prefer to eat at 75% every day instead. I've done calorie counting long enough that I generally know (give or take) how much I'm eating, and my plan is to still track on MFP so that i dont go overboard.

    I was wondering for those who do ADF how they arrange their exercise? Like, do you go easier on fast days and not workout as hard (or at all) those days? Or do you find that after an initial adjustment period your energy levels do not fluctuate on fast days?

    @jelleigh

    When I did 5:2 (c. 600 cals on the two low days) the first few fasts were hard and exercise made them harder.
    At first even moderate exercise in the gym was too much and I actually had to abandon a couple of fasts and eat more.
    But I did adapt over an extended period of time with slowly increasing the amount of exercise I could do on a low calorie day. In the end strength training felt just the same fed or fasted (it's a relatively low calorie burn) and I could burn roughly 500cals with moderate cardio without ill effects. I would regard them as my easy exercise days and wouldn't choose to do any intense or extended duration exercise.

    Things to keep in mind though was that with 5:2 you are going into a low calorie day after eating at maintenance level so pretty well fuelled, I would tend to exercise after a 200 cals lunch so not entirely fasted and I also had a relatively high carb diet on my maintenance days.

    Would suggest cautious experimentation as I knew others doing 5:2 that couldn't tolerate any exercise beyond a gentle walk on the fasting days and never adapted.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    @sijomial thanks for the info. I will keep an eye on things then.
    So far I’ve managed some long walks on my fast days and I’m going to slowly ramp up to more intense workouts over time. I think I will follow your pattern and do my workouts after at least some food. I’m actually surprised by how much food you can have for 500 calories!
    I don’t honestly know exactly what my maintenance calories are and I don’t know how much you can trust the tdee calculators (I get a range of 1900-2500 calories for maintenance spending on which site I use) so I’m planning on trying things out for a month and then adjusting based on the trend.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    jelleigh wrote: »
    @sijomial thanks for the info. I will keep an eye on things then.
    So far I’ve managed some long walks on my fast days and I’m going to slowly ramp up to more intense workouts over time. I think I will follow your pattern and do my workouts after at least some food. I’m actually surprised by how much food you can have for 500 calories!
    I don’t honestly know exactly what my maintenance calories are and I don’t know how much you can trust the tdee calculators (I get a range of 1900-2500 calories for maintenance spending on which site I use) so I’m planning on trying things out for a month and then adjusting based on the trend.

    might be able to hone in a tad quicker and avoid water weight issues (water adds weight but no calories in it of course).

    Just TDEE Please spreadsheet - better than rough 5 level TDEE charts from 1919 study.
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G7FgNzPq3v5WMjDtH0n93LXSMRY_hjmzNTMJb3aZSxM/edit?usp=sharing
  • debrag12
    debrag12 Posts: 1,071 Member
    Stud47 wrote: »
    Im noy specialist in physiology my field is way far from this, i found those statements somewhere in a site that refers to Dr Fung a famous nephrologist. He's a world-leading expert on intermittent fasting and low carb, especially for treating people with type 2 diabet.

    Those statements are correct or wrong?, im not an expert to confirm it and its not the purpose of my post and i dont want to talk about this anymore.

    SO forget the last part of my post (the physiological statements) and focus on my personal experience :smile:

    Thanks anyway

    Not Dr Fung!!!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Good timing on this @Stud47

    Just review - may give extra info on extra benefits vs risks of ADF.

    https://youtu.be/HaZmhuonGIs
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    Interesting. Thanks @heybales.