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The Latest Trend is Fasting: What say you?
Peppegal
Posts: 32 Member
The idea of fasting kind of scared me because I experience low blood sugar. But since I have been eating more fiber I find my blood sugar levels allow me to go further without food or fuel.
Remember those days when the experts said, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." What happened to that!
Eight hours of sleep count towards your fasting. What do you think about this idea and have you tried it? Feel free to leave resources to support your claim when necessary. Personal experiences are always welcomed.
Also include how you have been feeling versus the claims from the pros, including; moods, hunger, weightloss, or that you just think it's another trend.
I'm anxious to know!!!
~Resa
Remember those days when the experts said, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." What happened to that!
Eight hours of sleep count towards your fasting. What do you think about this idea and have you tried it? Feel free to leave resources to support your claim when necessary. Personal experiences are always welcomed.
Also include how you have been feeling versus the claims from the pros, including; moods, hunger, weightloss, or that you just think it's another trend.
I'm anxious to know!!!
~Resa
2
Replies
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Let me answer your question with a question.
Why do you want to fast ?
Because it's trendy? Because you think it's a magic bullet to weight loss? Because you're just not hungry at times and don't want to force yourself to eat?
I mean skipping breakfast (or whatever meals) isn't that big of a deal but it's still cico for weight loss.
I used to do a very loose interpretation of IF. I would basically try not to eat (more like eat very little) during the day so I could save my calories for the night. That changed when I started eating later and later, didn't finish what I'd logged, and started eating it the next day.
Either way, I stayed on goal (more or less).
This probably did not help at all. 😀6 -
Hey hey ! I personally have had a really bad experience with fasting - water fasting, that is, not IF. It triggered again a dormant eating disorder, and I took about three years to recover from it. It also led me to gain a good 7 kilos, which was obviously the reason I intended to fast in the first place. It also took me forever to recover my natural, quite high metabolism. I strongly believe it can trigger binge eating habits.
That said, I know plenty people who simply don't feel hungry at breakfast, or prefer to sleep a bit longer. That is perfectly fine with them, as they're not "forcing their nature.". So really it depends on how you feel about it.
7 -
Trends don't bother me. Try it if you like. If it works for you, great.
Personally, I prefer to eat throughout the day as/when I'm hungry and log my calories.10 -
IF was prescribed to me by my neurologist for managing nerve pain. It's done absolutely nothing for the nerve pain, but it's been AMAZING for my energy levels and weight loss. Plus my finicky stomach is much less finicky, my acid reflux is basically gone, I'm enjoying food a lot more, and I get far fewer drops in my blood sugar than I used to.
I used to get violent blood sugar drops, my vision would go wonky, nausea, shakes, lose my ability to speak clearly, and become really agitated and aggressive. When it happened, I absolutely had to eat urgently or I would throw up and/or pass out unless I could lie down. Now I can go an entire day without eating and not have that happen anymore.
When I originally heard of IF I thought it was the dumbest thing I had ever heard of. In fact that's exactly what I said to my employee who told me she was doing it years ago. But it's been a massive quality of life improvement for me. Still doing eff-all for my nerve pain, but I don't see ever going back to multiple meals a day.
But that's me and my unique body. You never know how any individual will react to any given way of eating.
I agree with others though, you have to be clear as to why you want to try it. What is your goal?
Also, fasting has been popular for as long as we have record of human eating behaviour. It's not a new thing, it's just getting a lot of media attention recently.16 -
The idea of fasting kind of scared me because I experience low blood sugar. But since I have been eating more fiber I find my blood sugar levels allow me to go further without food or fuel.
Remember those days when the experts said, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." What happened to that!
Eight hours of sleep count towards your fasting. What do you think about this idea and have you tried it? Feel free to leave resources to support your claim when necessary. Personal experiences are always welcomed.
Also include how you have been feeling versus the claims from the pros, including; moods, hunger, weightloss, or that you just think it's another trend.
I'm anxious to know!!!
~Resa
On a side note...."experts" never said that. It was a marketing campaign by a cereal company.29 -
I skipped breakfast for over a year, my form of IF. Skipping breakfast made it easier to stay within my calorie goal and still have calories for an engerlingen snack.
Then I started eating (high protein) breakfast again, when I noticed my protein intake was low.
Didn't notice any difference in my weight-loss, my mood, my energy level... My hunger never when away when I stopped eating breakfast, my stomach would growl like a mad man in the morning. Nice and awkward when there's a quiet moment at the office and your stomach decides to roar 🤪
I still skip breakfast occasionally, when I know I'll have a high calorie dinner or lunch. That's about the only benefit I experienced.6 -
What say me?
I say I am better off eating smaller amounts more frequently and I don't do well without breakfast so IF is not for me.5 -
@paperpudding I am in complete and total agreement with you on this!1
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I've used intermittent fasting throughout my life generally because I'm often not hungry early in the day. It didn't really help me stay at an acceptable weight as I can just eat too much at night.
I've also used 5:2 at times when I knew I would need extra calories for an event. It's okay but not something I want to do often. I get grouchy when my calories are too low.
4 -
By experts and pros I mean doctors and qualified people not magazine articles by opinion writers. I've done a lot of research on it and for sure, it's not for everyone. My son is a doctor and we discuss a lot of topics. The biggest problem is so many studies change what previous study said!2
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By experts and pros I mean doctors and qualified people not magazine articles by opinion writers. I've done a lot of research on it and for sure, it's not for everyone. My son is a doctor and we discuss a lot of topics. The biggest problem is so many studies change what previous study said!
Please ask your son how many courses specifically on nutrition he took. Most doctors take at most ONE. Some never take any. Dietitians are the experts on nutrition. (As someone who was going that route before a car accident derailed my plans.)
You should also review/learn about the scientific method and how the media reports on studies. Well done, double blind, non biased (not financed by an entity who sells the product) studies rarely outright contradict each other. Scientists do learn more and refine knowledge as time goes on (which is the scientific method working properly).
On topic, I think we are still far from understanding IF (although I haven't reviewed the literature extensively, just skimmed occasionally). I wouldn't discourage someone from testing it to see if it meets their needs for calorie control and if it provides any additional measurable differences (blood sugar control, pain management, etc). It's certainly not THE answer for everyone, but I'd be pretty shocked if someday we actually found one eating style that was perfect for all people.
Personally, due to GERD, I don't eat between 7 pm (GERD "rule" is no food 3 hours before bed) and about 8 am (at least one hour after taking med/PPI). I'm very used to this because it's been about 4 years since my diagnosis. Not enough hours to be considered IF, but I assume that it just takes time to get used to shorter eating windows. Using MFP, I successfully lost a small amount of extra (mostly vanity) weight and have maintained since 3/2020.14 -
By experts and pros I mean doctors and qualified people not magazine articles by opinion writers. I've done a lot of research on it and for sure, it's not for everyone. My son is a doctor and we discuss a lot of topics. The biggest problem is so many studies change what previous study said!
That's not actually a problem, that's how research works. It's how popular media reports it that's the problem.
Diets are extremely hard to research, so only little bits can be studied by individual experiments, and only small little pieces of data are generated with each study. Years and years of these small, specific studies eventually start adding up to a bigger picture, but never a totally clear one when it comes to diets in humans, because it's impossible to study them effectively.
So research will likely never produce a clear, definitive conclusion about any specific diet, that's just the nature of research. We can't isolate thousands of humans in a controlled environment and control how and what they eat for years on end, and unless we did that over and over again, we won't ever get the info we really need about diets and their effects on humans.
It's just stupid pop science reporting that makes it sound like individual studies actually conclude anything significant about a particular diet. They're just tiny little drops in the bucket.
Of course they will seem like they contradict each other, but that's only if you interpret each study to be "proving" something. They don't individually prove anything, they just add to the overall blurry picture.
That's research for you. It's a feature, not a flaw.
14 -
@Peppegal
Try it. See if it gives you the "results" you are seeking. You still haven't mentioned what it is you want IF to "do" for you.
For weight loss, IF is no different from any other food-management tool. Eat fewer calories than your particular body needs to maintain its current weight and you will lose weight.
Finding that number is the #1 most important thing so logging food accurately over time is the best strategy. Doesn't matter the timing.5 -
The idea of fasting kind of scared me because I experience low blood sugar. But since I have been eating more fiber I find my blood sugar levels allow me to go further without food or fuel.
Remember those days when the experts said, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." What happened to that!
Eight hours of sleep count towards your fasting. What do you think about this idea and have you tried it? Feel free to leave resources to support your claim when necessary. Personal experiences are always welcomed.
Also include how you have been feeling versus the claims from the pros, including; moods, hunger, weightloss, or that you just think it's another trend.
I'm anxious to know!!!
~Resa
IF wouldn't be enjoyable for me (it's a personality thing), and it was 100% not necessary to me for weight management. I did and do eat from shortly after I get up in the morning, to right before bedtime. I lost weight at a good clip (at age 59-60, while hypothyroid, without much changing exercise or the range of foods I ate, class 1 obese to healthy weight), and I've been at a healthy weight since (now 66) after previous decades of overweight/obesity.
On top of that, if I work out fasted, my workouts feel awful, and I struggle to keep intensity up. (This isn't true for everyone, but is for me.)
To me, fasting isn't worth it, for any benefit for which I've seen reasonable evidence.
I find particularly odd the argument that natural selection designed us to go for long periods without eating, so that implies that we best thrive if we go for long periods without eating. Why would that be true? Natural selection designed us so that our broken bones can heal, too, but no one suggests healthy people should routinely break bones in order to make them stronger.
In evolutionary terms, it would be good if starving people could keep going, maybe even get a burst of energy so that they don't quickly give up on food-seeking behavior. That doesn't in itself mean food deprivation is optimal, when we have other choices.
Curmudgeon/ I'm skeptical of trendy things in general: I'm pretty old. Trends come and go. Sensible stuff is often kind of boring, especially as conversation fodder, less likely to be trendy. /curmudgeon11 -
I lost almost 40 pounds in 11 months last year fasting on a 12:12 schedule.4
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I've done 16:8 IF for about 2 years for about 90% of that time. I've lost weight doing IF. I've gained weight doing IF. When I lost weight doing IF, it was coupled with tracking calories and working out 5/7 days a week. When I gained weight with IF, just the opposite - I didn't track and probably didn't work out as much. So why do I continue doing IF? Mainly as a reminder to myself to "close the kitchen" at 8pm and to not mindlessly snack in the evening. It's been quite helpful as a mindset.
As far as skipping breakfast, not really a problem for me. I'm generally not hungry in the mornings (more thirsty than anything). I also workout in the morning around 9am and prefer to exercise fasted.9 -
I'm doing 16:8 Intermittent Fasting and so far it's working for me. I've lost a few kilos since starting, whereas I'd found it hard to shift anything in the months beforehand.
Previously I'd thought I'd hate any form of fasting because I used to feel hungry and snack all the time. Paradoxically, I've found myself less hungry since starting IF so I snack less - even in my eight-hour eating window. It's helpful for stopping me snacking mindlessly in the evenings if nothing else.
The weight loss approach that works is the one you stick to. Some people love IF, some hate it. It's a good idea to get clearance from your doctor first if you have any medical conditions that could be complicated by fasting.4 -
What I personally think...
I am from South of Italy, and my maternal grandparents were from Apulia. My granddad died of Alzheimer at 82, otherwise he was very very healthy, his wife my grandma died at 97, she got diabetes type 2 after menopause, although she had quite a healthy diet.
ANYWAY, when they were young they used to fast, not because they wanted to, but it was the II world war, there was poverty before it and after. My grandad's family was of farm workers (not owner of land!) and they used to have No breakfast at all or just soup (yeah, vegetables and that is it). They did not have it for breakfast, they used to go to bed at 9, wake up at 4, work until 12 and then have "breakfast" which was...soup and maybe, MAYBE a piece of bread (sometimes stale). They were all slim..but they were healthy?
Not sure.
Luckily enough, they managed to get passed the War, got better jobs and had a healthy diet, but still, breakfast..meh. maybe a coffee (home made), rarely milk and never ever croissants. I think they never had that.
So I think there's a need to divide between the WILL to fast, the NEED to fast (for medical reason) and well, Fasting because you do not have food.
We have food, plenty. Food is accessible and yes, junk food is even cheaper than proper food in some countries (and I am not talking of 2nd or 3rd world countries- I hate this distinction, but it is to explain myself better). When I was living in central London, I remember that buying fresh fennel would cost me 1.50 pound per piece (back in 2019), and the same in central Dublin, when I moved there. Here In Italy, you can buy 1 kg fennel for max 4 euro (so at least 4 or 5 pieces). Junk Food in London was way too cheap, and in Dublin too, in Italy you have junk food but is as expensive as good food. So I am not sure why, but still, processed food in some countries is cheaper than whole food.
So yes, we have plenty of food, and we feel the need to fast. Why?
Do we need to fast to lose weight? Would not not eat better to eat properly during the day, the 5 meals a day rule (not my opinion, doctors ' opinion!), than skip breakfast ?
Why do we need to workout on an empty stomach?To better perform? To burn more calorie?
And then, how do we feel after working out on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning?
I personally can't do it. I tried, but I can't. In the morning, I am hungry. I suffer from PCOS and Hypersulinism, and in the morning I need fuel. I can skip lunch, to be honest, and have an early dinner, but this does not count as fasting.
That said, I would love to go to a retreat to do fasting, meditation, reading, walks, swim, massages, Spa treatments.. Yet I do not have 5 k to fast
ps: sorry, my English got worse since I got back to Italy
7 -
I'm older now and I have trouble losing weight but I have to say I've added fiber and some fasting and I lost 10 lbs!
I always had an exercise routine so that was never the problem.
And I do eat my largest meal in the afternoon, not at dinner.
I love my new routine and I will stick with it.4 -
Whatever works as long as you're not harming yourself in the process.
With that 10 lbs, tho, I *am* curious how long it's been since you've lost weight or if you're just starting out or if you also suddenly went low carb or something. 2 -
For starters, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was coined by the Kellogg corporation, there weren't any experts involved. It was just a marketing slogan.
IF is just a tool which may help people better maintain their calories. Studies on the health benefits of IF, if any are pretty inconclusive and more or less in their infancy. I have done IF at various times throughout my life and have gained weight, maintained weight, and lost weight depending on my overall calorie intake. For most of my weight gain years I inadvertently practiced IF as I never used to consume anything before my lunch except black coffee...but my lunches, snacking, and dinners were large. My personal preference now is 3 meals per day with an afternoon snack. I do tend to skip breakfast if I know I'm going to have higher calories later in the day...like if we're planning to go out or we're attending some kind of party or something as it helps keep calories in check.5 -
Talking of studies.....
This is an interesting one that seems well designed, good size sample and duration.
It was also run by a fasting enthusiast (time restricted eating version) .
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2771095
Highlights:
Time Restricted Eating....
Showed more moss of lean mass compared to eating in a more time-balanced way.
Showed a spontaneous reduction in activity
Showed no advantage (or disadvantage) as regards resting metabolic rate. The common claim of boosted metabolism doesn't seem evidence-based.
Here's a review of the study including some suggestions that might mitigate or avoid the lean mass and activity issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o_Qd7tcB3E
(What say I? Personally I will continue mostly skipping breakfast as it makes my weight maintenance easier and more enjoyable.)1 -
RobertaMoore2022 wrote: »What I personally think...
I am from South of Italy, and my maternal grandparents were from Apulia. My granddad died of Alzheimer at 82, otherwise he was very very healthy, his wife my grandma died at 97, she got diabetes type 2 after menopause, although she had quite a healthy diet.
ANYWAY, when they were young they used to fast, not because they wanted to, but it was the II world war, there was poverty before it and after. My grandad's family was of farm workers (not owner of land!) and they used to have No breakfast at all or just soup (yeah, vegetables and that is it). They did not have it for breakfast, they used to go to bed at 9, wake up at 4, work until 12 and then have "breakfast" which was...soup and maybe, MAYBE a piece of bread (sometimes stale). They were all slim..but they were healthy?
Not sure.
Luckily enough, they managed to get passed the War, got better jobs and had a healthy diet, but still, breakfast..meh. maybe a coffee (home made), rarely milk and never ever croissants. I think they never had that.
So I think there's a need to divide between the WILL to fast, the NEED to fast (for medical reason) and well, Fasting because you do not have food.
We have food, plenty. Food is accessible and yes, junk food is even cheaper than proper food in some countries (and I am not talking of 2nd or 3rd world countries- I hate this distinction, but it is to explain myself better). When I was living in central London, I remember that buying fresh fennel would cost me 1.50 pound per piece (back in 2019), and the same in central Dublin, when I moved there. Here In Italy, you can buy 1 kg fennel for max 4 euro (so at least 4 or 5 pieces). Junk Food in London was way too cheap, and in Dublin too, in Italy you have junk food but is as expensive as good food. So I am not sure why, but still, processed food in some countries is cheaper than whole food.
So yes, we have plenty of food, and we feel the need to fast. Why?
Do we need to fast to lose weight? Would not not eat better to eat properly during the day, the 5 meals a day rule (not my opinion, doctors ' opinion!), than skip breakfast ?
Why do we need to workout on an empty stomach?To better perform? To burn more calorie?
And then, how do we feel after working out on an empty stomach, first thing in the morning?
I personally can't do it. I tried, but I can't. In the morning, I am hungry. I suffer from PCOS and Hypersulinism, and in the morning I need fuel. I can skip lunch, to be honest, and have an early dinner, but this does not count as fasting.
That said, I would love to go to a retreat to do fasting, meditation, reading, walks, swim, massages, Spa treatments.. Yet I do not have 5 k to fast
ps: sorry, my English got worse since I got back to Italy
There's a huge difference between intermittent fasting and starving.
What I like about intermittent fasting compared to eating multiple very low calorie meals a day to lose weight is that I feel LESS deprived.
I eat one meal a day, but man do I eat during that meal. I just pile my plate high with whatever sounds tasty and I go to town on it. I find it much more satisfying than eating 3 small meals a day. Plus I can eat significantly more calories now than I could when I was eating multiple times a day.
So for me, IF is the exact *opposite* of starving.
The rest of the day, I'm just not hungry. Because I'm not starving and underweight like many Europeans during WWII, my body slips into ketosis and uses the ample fat supplies that I have to keep me highly energized.
In fact, I've had to move my eating window to the evening because the ketones were so energizing, they were giving me insomnia if I ate in the morning. Now a big evening meal is a surefire way to get me all happy and sleepy by bedtime.
As for exercise, yeah, it was hard for exercise fasted for the first few weeks, but like almost every other IFer I know, once I adapted, I now would never eat before exercise. It's WAY easier to exercise while fasted.
I don't know if everyone adapts after a month or two, but I know that you couldn't pay me to go back to eating multiple times a day. I don't do this because I feel I have to to lose weight. I do this because I significantly prefer it as a lifestyle.
And that's speaking as someone who already had a very healthy, whole food, plant based diet that I enjoyed. IF for me is just so much better.7 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »For starters, "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" was coined by the Kellogg corporation, there weren't any experts involved. It was just a marketing slogan.
IF is just a tool which may help people better maintain their calories. Studies on the health benefits of IF, if any are pretty inconclusive and more or less in their infancy. I have done IF at various times throughout my life and have gained weight, maintained weight, and lost weight depending on my overall calorie intake. For most of my weight gain years I inadvertently practiced IF as I never used to consume anything before my lunch except black coffee...but my lunches, snacking, and dinners were large. My personal preference now is 3 meals per day with an afternoon snack. I do tend to skip breakfast if I know I'm going to have higher calories later in the day...like if we're planning to go out or we're attending some kind of party or something as it helps keep calories in check.
This is also true.
As much as I love IF, it's also kind of how I gained weight in the first place...sort of.
During med school, we were going 100hr work weeks and I never had time to eat. So I would get home from the hospital, eat way too much pizza from the place in my building, and then wash it down with 3-4 glasses of wine most nights.
I gained only a pound or two a month, but over 4 years, that adds up to obese.
IF can't compensate for a terrible diet and too much alcohol. It's not magic. Granted, it was never actually IF, because I was drinking coffee all day long with cream in it. But still, black coffee 16 hours a day wouldn't have miraculously saved me from gaining weight on a diet of pizza and wine.
I love IF now, because it's just a really great refinement of an already on-point diet.
That said, on fasting forums, many people have reported that their appetite and food choices have gotten healthier since starting IF. That they've eliminated sugar cravings, binge episodes, and start craving a lot more vegetables.
So that effect for some people alone would be a massive benefit, and have a huge impact on weight.1 -
For me personally, IF just ain't my thing. I usually train first thing after I wake up and I perform much better with at least a couple hundred calories in me before I am out the door to head to the gym. Most of my meals are on the small-ish side (then again, I am in a cut, so take that with a grain of salt!), with one larger meal (usually dinner), and then a small bedtime meal/snack just before turning in, so generally 4-5 meals/snacks throughout the day. But once again, that's just me and how I do things.3
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I've done IF, alt day, and a longer water fast in the past, each for different reasons. I like 16:8 IF in general on a regular basis because otherwise I snack too much in the evening. Keeping all my meals in an 8 hr window helps me control total calories. It's also taught me to recognize true hunger vs. boredom or stress eating. I've used alt day fasting to get through a weight loss stall. The longer water fast was for other health issues, but in general, I feel like I lost muscle and my metabolism decreased, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a really specific reason for doing it besides weight loss. I gained back all that I lost once I started eating again, only it's not muscle now.1
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Personally I like it, its not superior to any diet because all diets require a deficit to work if we are talking weight loss
I like IF because it tailors well to my lifestyle and I just find it easy, I think some of the benefits that people claim you get from IF is true, like I feel mental clarity, less brain fog, less hunger, more control over calories etc, but again, its down to the individual
3 -
I started the fasting and more fiber the end of December. I started losing more weight because it was so slow I half a pound a week before Christmas. It was so frustrating I just said I have to make a change somehow so my son directed me to fasting. Honestly, I just didn't think I could do it.
When I check my nutrition I realize I was having enough protein and probably still don't but my fiber content is way up. The fiber is allowing me to go longer without eating. For me it goes hand-in-hand.0 -
@Peppegal - according to your profile you only have 7lb left to lose
Correct me if this is wrong and 7lb is a mini goal rather than to your end goal
if it is to your end goal, 1/2 lb per week is good rate at that stage.
If IF suits you, that's great - but I dont think you needed to change to it to up your loss rate because 1/2 lb is 'so frustrating'7 -
IF is not magic for me, but it does help me stay on track, and provides structure. I am a teacher, an rarely have time to eat anything until at least 11 am on a weekday anyway... so why not. 16:8 is also really just the old "do not eat after 7" with a different name, and people still swear by that.1
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