Intermittent Fasting: 16 or 12 hours a day or 1-3 days?

Nagasadowww

What do you prefer?

wm3796

I personally don’t think 12:12 should be considered IF but rather what should be normal eating time. So many eat 3 meals and snack throughout the day which can be part of an overconsumption problem for some people. We need to get away from the old idea of “ don’t let yourself get hungry”.

Retroguy2000

None, since it's irrelevant for weight loss. I prefer snacks between meals and spaced out protein.

neanderthin

I don't specifically IF but generally speaking I eat in about an 8 hour window naturally. Yeah, and 12 hour TRF really isn't engaging in IF imo.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32673591/

We conducted the first human trial (Clinicaltrials.gov NCT03867773) to compare the effects of two popular forms of TRF (4 and 6 h) on body weight and cardiometabolic risk factors. Adults with obesity were randomized to 4-h TRF (eating only between 3 and 7 p.m.), 6-h TRF (eating only between 1 and 7 p.m.), or a control group (no meal timing restrictions). After 8 weeks, 4- and 6-h TRF produced comparable reductions in body weight (∼3%), insulin resistance, and oxidative stress, versus controls. Energy intake was reduced by ∼550 kcal/day in both TRF groups, without calorie counting. These findings suggest that 4- and 6-h TRF induce mild reductions in body weight over 8 weeks and show promise as interventions for weight loss. These diets may also improve some aspects of cardiometabolic health.

tomcustombuilder

If you do IF the eating window that is most convenient is the one to use. Don’t think IF as some magic weight reduction eating program, overall weekly calories will always determine the outcome of fatloss no matter what you do whether it’s IF, KETO, Atkins, etc.

MacLowCarbing

16 hours a day

I think you have to take your lifestyle into consideration.

I fell into IF 16:8 and sometimes 18:6 because I was doing a lot of night grazing (and sometimes binging). I'm a night owl and in the day I wasn't eating enough so I'd be ravenous at night. Or sometimes I'd just be bored and pick. Basically IF taught me to pay more attention to getting my nutrition in during the day and to stop mindlessly eating at night.

On the other hand, I'm still on 1 diabetes med and my blood sugar levels have overall gone down; fasting for too long causes my blood sugar to drop if I'm not careful due to that med.

I don't think there is a magic formula really, I think IF is a great tool but how to implement it depends more on each person's individual needs.

paperpudding

I can't vote because "None of the above" would be correct answer for me and is not an option

12:12 is really only something like eating breakfast at 8 am, then a small snack after dinner around 8 pm (or a late dinner at 8 pm ) and nothing till next morning.

That would surely be an "unintentional IF" that lots of people follow.

Corina1143

paperpudding wrote: »

I can't vote because "None of the above" would be correct answer for me and is not an option

12:12 is really only something like eating breakfast at 8 am, then a small snack after dinner around 8 pm (or a late dinner at 8 pm ) and nothing till next morning.

That would surely be an "unintentional IF" that lots of people follow.

That's me. I usually eat within a 6-8 hour window. Not because of intermittent fasting, but because that's when I'm hungry.

neanderthin

Most of our existence of the last few million years until very very recently engaged is calorie restriction (starvation) and unintentional fasting (no food), that is who we are. Probably a 1/3 of humankind still exist that way. We know what happens when we don't deprive ourselves of food, even for a day, most get fatter and fatter.

sollyn23l2

neanderthin wrote: »

Most of our existence of the last few million years until very very recently engaged is calorie restriction (starvation) and unintentional fasting (no food), that is who we are. Probably a 1/3 of humankind still exist that way. We know what happens when we don't deprive ourselves of food, even for a day, most get fatter and fatter.

Fact.

kshama2001

12 hours a day

I used to say I fasted 12:12 ironically, and was surprised to hear it's actually a thing.

tomcustombuilder wrote: »

If you do IF the eating window that is most convenient is the one to use. Don’t think IF as some magic weight reduction eating program, overall weekly calories will always determine the outcome of fatloss no matter what you do whether it’s IF, KETO, Atkins, etc.

Here that is in graphic form: