Intermittent Fasting

tyork1994986
tyork1994986 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss

Hey All! I wanted to hear your stories if you have used intermittent fasting. Has this worked for you? Do you workout before/during/after your fast? What are obstacles for you

For context, I started fasting at the start of 2025 using a 16:8 fasting app and workout in the middle of my fast. I typically don't eat breakfast, so I just used dinner to lunch to be my fasting time. I typically workout at 6AM and break my fast around 11. I'm down over 30 pounds as of 3/27/25!

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Answers

  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,442 Member

    Your fatloss success will be determined by a weekly calories deficit consistently and not meal timing

  • Janice4945
    Janice4945 Posts: 42 Member

    I have tried IF several times but as for me, it has never made much difference in my weight loss. I do better eating 3 meals a day and a snack and tracking my macros and calories. I am eating a Paleo way of eating now with no sugar, dairy or grains and eating protein, fresh vegetables and fresh fruit. Staying away from processed food. Also staying away from foods high in lectins (night shade veggies). You can read about them by searching how lectins affect your body and weightloss. Just really getting started with this.

  • LauraCron
    LauraCron Posts: 7 Member

    I just started this week with 16:8 fasting. My hours have changed at work 11AM-7PM. The main reason I started using the fasting timer, is accountability for myself… So I wont eat after 7, I’m kicking the late night snacking habit, and it has helped. I eat my “Brunch” at 10, before I go to work… Big life change and eating habit change.
    Here is to a healthier lifestyle! ❤️

  • totameafox
    totameafox Posts: 1,284 Member

    yeah i don't pay attention to the time between meals. If i can swing it i eat at noon and 5pm. but I will eat if i feel the need or I am going out to eat with family. My aunt's nickers got into a twist when I told her intermittent fasting doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. If it helps you, fine. but life requires a bit of flexibility.

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,607 Member

    It's still and always about calories in < calories out.

    If intermittent fasting helps you by making up some Rules To Follow, then by all means use it. We all make some rules around food when we are losing weight. Intermittent fasting isn't magic. Eat less than you use and lose weight.

  • lgfrie
    lgfrie Posts: 1,450 Member
    edited April 6

    I did IF from 2019 to around early 2022. I found it quite helpful as a way to structure my eating day, making it much easier to hit and not exceed calorie targets. The most useful part for me was knowing, from accumulated experience, that I really would eat my last bite at 7 pm, thus allowing me to lavishly love and savor every single calorie in my quota up until that moment. No guit or question as to whether I was entitled to that last piece of chocolate or if it would lead to binging - I rarely binged after 7 pm and so the whole IF thing gave me confidence and a track to run on to truly enjoy all my food and not wonder, for instance, if I'd be hungry later because - yes - I'd be hungry later but it didn't matter, because I wouldn't eat LOL And after a month of IF, I started waking up with no hunger pangs and rarely felt hungry at all - it was paradoxical. THe more time-restricted my eating window was, the less hungry i was the rest of the time.

    Eventually I found that I did not need (or enjoy) morning restrictions, so IF gave way to a simpler approach: no more food after 7 pm until the next morning. I have now stuck with that for years and found it effective. I think people just differ a lot as to how much structure they need. Having that structure fits me well.

    In addition to the basic calories in - calories out formula, I do think there is some incremental increase in weight loss from IF. This is a controversial topic. Others believe differently; they're entitled to, but I'm also entitled to my view, and I have 6 years of IF or IF-like experience to back it up. It seems to me that going to bed on a truly empty stomach has incremental weight loss beneifts in addition to calories. Small difference - not like losing 50 pounds instead of 30, maybe more like losing 32 instead of 30. But the difference is there. imho. I've come to believe that going to sleep on a truly empty stomach has lots of real benefits that people who don't schedule-eat don't really know about.

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