Is anyone Intermittent Fasting? if so, what is the best recommended times to fast?
Answers
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Too many moving parts, be more specific.
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yes many people use intermittent fasting. The fasting times are dependent on what is convenient for each individual person. Just understand that intermittent fasting does not cause weight loss on its own. It indirectly can if it causes a person to consume fewer weekly calories.
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Best for what? You need to provide us with a bit more information in order to help you.
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Yeah, mostly agree with that but the metabolic effects of some specific IF do have powerful enough affects that weight loss is a direct result of that fasting.
The problem and where the conflict lie's is in the proper application, consistent time line and adherence and because of IF's vague interpretation most don't adhere to those simple guidelines which generally results in giving up and negative reviews. This seems to be quite common as well, people like magic bullets with instantaneous results it seems.
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Hi. Saw that you tagged weight-loss and I agree with previous postings on the many variables in your question. Depending on your work type, lifestyle and schedule can vary your IF schedule. Posted a link to a site that explains IF, benefits, and safety concerns to consider.
In short, to answer your question if you work a day shift you could start fasting for 8 hours beginning 7AM-3PM (pretty much no lunch) for a week then work your way up to 12hours | 7AM-7PM the next week, then 16hours.
**NOTE: Not a doctor in any way so seek a registered dietician/nutritionist for advice, especially if you need to take medications or have some medical conditions.
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IF is great for those it suits, no questions.
For myself: Nope, never. At least not in current circumstances.
It would be unpleasant to me, not helpful, and I lost weight fine without it, have maintained a healthy weight fine without it for 9+ years so far, all my medical tests that were worrisome became solidly normal to excellent with the weight loss, athletic performance is fine, etc.
Why not experiment, give it a fair try for a few weeks at a time, try different schedules, see whether it helps you personally or not?
You don't mention what your goals are: Weight loss/gain? Health? Body composition? Performance? You don't give any details about yourself like current age/size/health issues/activities. There's no real basis for giving you advice, so you're likely going to get other people's "what worked for me", and some of them will believe their thing is the universal right solution. (I have my doubts about that. I think there are a wide range of options that will work for different people.)
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Yeah good information, unfortunately people perceive it's a weight loss strategy.
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Hello,
The best time to fast is what fits your schedule. I personally do not recommend eating later in the evening because you will be sleeping with an undigested stomach. Our bodies are made to use food as energy during the day. Fat is burned at night on an empty stomach. I would suggest starting slow with a 16/8 schedule with your eating window from 9am-5pm or 10am to 6pm. This also depends on when you are up in the morning and when you sleep. If you are an early riser start your eating window earlier. Give yourself at least 3 to 4 hours to digest your last meal before sleeping. Yes sleeping does count towards your fasting hours. As you get used to it you can shorten your eating window and increase your fasting time. I am currently doing alternate day fasting. 36 fasting hours. I hope this helps.
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Not quite. It's a constant flux: if you eat too much during daytime the excess is stored in your body, to be used when needs arrive. if you don't eat enough during daytime then energy is taken out of stores. And the same is true for nights.
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No, not quite and the body is not in constant flux, we're either in a anabolic state or a catabolic state which is dependent on factors like energy balance, activity levels and dietary intake. Your description of how the body uses adipose tissue is too simplistic.
If someone actually doesn't eat anything during the day and also add the 6 hours, for argument sake, for the time needed for sleeping and we also assume daytime ends at 6pm, again for argument sake, that is a total of 18 hours without eating, which leaves from 6pm to 12pm as feeding time, then what we have is what's referred to as 18-6 intermittent fasting. Also if that person that ate during that 6 hour window ate in excess, then adipose tissue, or fat burning is pretty much non existent, or they would lose body fat, but they don't.
Now we come down to who is doing IF.
If the scenario I suggested above was an overweight or obese individual and was fairly sedentary, which describes by the way, the vast majority that are actually looking at IF as a weight loss solution, it will be completely different than a person that is considered lean and is athletically active and doing their fair share of weight resistance and cardio on a weekly basis and is in energy balance while consuming mostly a whole food diet which focuses on protein.
Back to the anabolic and catabolic states.
In the subject that is overweight or obese and is consuming mostly in excess of calories has a few things that are going to prevent or circumvent the burning of adipose tissue…… the big guy is insulin. After eating the body either stores that energy as glycogen or body fat, that's insulins job as a facilitator in this context.
Basically this subject will always have close to being full of glycogen in both the muscle tissue and liver as well and if by chance this subject allows their insulin levels to come down to base line which for this demographic it's more than likely to take 4-6 hours as opposed to the 2-4 hours for that lean person then the body can enter the catabolic state where is uses stored energy.
Now here's the kicker, the next substate use for energy will be glycogen and not body fat. The liver glycogen is broken down to maintain blood glucose levels while muscle glycogen is used for localized energy needs during our daily activities. The body requires glycogen to be pretty much depleted before interruption is taking place where it will then catabolize stored adipose tissue to replace that void. All together the obese individual isn't going to be tapping into adipose tissue for 8 to 12 hours depending on activity. Unfortunately the space between each meal is not 8-12 hours. If an overweigh or obese person is eating every 4 or 5 hours with snacks blood sugar will be chronically elevated all day long which will never allow any catabolism to take place until they're sleeping and again they would have to be consuming few calories that their requirements as well, otherwise no fat loss will occur. I hope this makes sense because I could have elaborated a lot more, lol, no kidding right.
Basically what I'm saying is if someone is eating mostly a SAD diet and eating every 4 hours or so with snacks their blood sugar levels will always be elevated which will never allow an catabolism to take place and never mind the glycogen that will be used before any adipose can be used and if they happen to be in a caloric defict then it will happen while they sleep.
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I am currently doing alternate day fasting. 36 fasting hours.
I've researched the metabolic and biological benefits of extended fasting and recently finished my third 72 hour fast, and it really has been eye opener for me and will be engaging in this format going forward indefinitely. The euphoric feeling is really amazing which makes sense but I guess I just wasn't expecting it to be that evident. I also don't do any IF in the respect to daily protocols like 18-6 but have done 5-2 which worked for me when I needed to shed a few lbs.
Mental clarity which is just one benefit of the many on the 72 hour protocol was through the roof which was also one of the benefits of a ketogenic diet, which I can say did have a significant effect on me, but this was far more evident which are attributed to the increased levels of norepinephrine and HGH (human growth hormone) also brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and to a much higher degree than a ketogenic diet and it was a bonus for sure. Also with elevated HGH which actually increases 300-400% during longer fasts I was more active which I thought would actually be the opposite. I suspect if someone was consuming a diet where glucose was the primary energy source as opposed to the ketones in a ketogenic diet, it would probably and especially initially within the first 24 hours have the opposite effect and last at least until most glycogen has been utilized which is in that 17 to 24 hour time frame before the body starts producing ketones to a greater extent. Anyway I hope you 36 hour fast generate some benefit for you because it has for me. 😊
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