Intermittent Fasting--your experience?

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tryingtoshed
tryingtoshed Posts: 135 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What was your experience with it? Did it work for you? Benefits? Challenges?

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  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    Type that into the Search function above and you'll have a whole days reading.
  • motivatedww
    motivatedww Posts: 10
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    Agree--much written on the topic. The information I recently read contradicts the conventional wisdom that 'starving' will decrease muscle mass. Not that prolonged starvation won't but skipping meals is unlikely to. Before I began my current program I spent a couple of weeks with intermittent fasting. The benefit was that I wasn't thinking about food all of the time--no planning 3 meals and snacks and being obsessive about dividing 1200 calories amongst them. I wasn't particularly hungry--or weak, etc. For me, it wasn't sustainable - I enjoy food too much! Not sure what it did for my weight but what it did do is convince me that it's fine to skip one or two meals--if I'm not hungry, if I want to save calories for another meal, or any other reason. Before I educated myself about this I felt guilty for skipping meals--I could just see my muscles withering away before my eyes :) Now, it's just a part of an overall common sense strategy of more exercise, fewer calories, fewer carbs, and (sadly) no wine.
  • smc864
    smc864 Posts: 570 Member
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    I've only been doing intermittent fasting for a week but I'm completely sold. I'm doing the leangains version, so daily 16 hour fast with an 8 hour eating window. Sometimes I do 18/6. I've lost 4 pounds this week. I feel so much better. I work out fasted and I feel amazing during the workout, especially when I lift. I think you really just have to try it for yourself to see how you will like it.

    My favorite aspect of intermittent fasting is that I've realized that it's ok to be hungry. I am actually more focused and motivated when I am fasting.

    I eat 1200 calories/day and I find that I am MUCH more compliant on my diet everyday since starting IF. It is much easier to have two larger meals than to spread 1200 calories throughout the day.

    I've read that some people experience food obsession and binge eating... but that's definitely not the case with me.

    Good luck!
  • Mischievous_Rascal
    Mischievous_Rascal Posts: 1,791 Member
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    I've only been doing intermittent fasting for a week but I'm completely sold. I'm doing the leangains version, so daily 16 hour fast with an 8 hour eating window. Sometimes I do 18/6. I've lost 4 pounds this week. I feel so much better. I work out fasted and I feel amazing during the workout, especially when I lift. I think you really just have to try it for yourself to see how you will like it.

    My favorite aspect of intermittent fasting is that I've realized that it's ok to be hungry. I am actually more focused and motivated when I am fasting.

    I eat 1200 calories/day and I find that I am MUCH more compliant on my diet everyday since starting IF. It is much easier to have two larger meals than to spread 1200 calories throughout the day.

    I've read that some people experience food obsession and binge eating... but that's definitely not the case with me.

    Good luck!

    This is what I do, as well, only my window is 14/10. I find It can mess with my hormones over time if I fast past 14 hours on a regular basis. But it's amazing! I never really liked breakfast, and I was always missing my bedtime snack, so having an eating window of noon to 10 pm is perfect for me. The only challenge I've had is earlier weekend breakfasts/brunches with friends, but I just suck it up and fit them into my calories for the day and get right back to IF the next day. Eating this way keeps my calories in check, and I my body fat is dropping like mad. :)
  • paleojoe
    paleojoe Posts: 442 Member
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    I have been IF'ing for a few years with great success. It has been the easiest method for calorie control that I have come across. I used to do 16/8 fasting. Currently I do one to two 24 hour fasts per week a la Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat. Both work great by the way.

    Oddly enough I was doing some numbers and came to this...
    Eat breakfast at 10am
    Eat Lunch at 2pm
    Eat Dinner at 6pm

    6pm dinner to a 10am breakfast is a 16 hour fast... but not skipping any meals... made me laugh because that's how my Grandmother lived her whole life.

    Like others have said, my biggest takeaway from fasting is that it is ok to be hungry. It is ok to skip a meal. Makes managing calories really easy.

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