what's up with intermittent fasting?

SKME2013

Intermittent fasting comprises more than one version:

a) 5:2 fasting, two days a week you eat under 500 cal (women)/ 600 cal (men) and the other 5 days you just eat "normally", making sure though that you stay under your TDEE. (google: 5:2 fast or Dr Michael Mosley
b) 4:3 fasting, same as above, but three days fasting and four days eating under your TDEE
c) ADF = alternate day fasting or "The Every Other Day Diet" = every second day fasting. This form of dieting has been extensively researched by Dr. Krista Varadi and there are lot's of clinical trials about this. The 5:2 diet is based on her research. The major difference here is that you can not only eat what you like but also how much you like on your non fast days

All of the above are often combined with something called 16:8, 20:4 or 22:2, which means you eat all of your daily calories either within 8 hours, 4 hours or 2 hours and the rest of the day you eat nothing. Sometimes people just follow the eating window of 16:8... without restricting their calorie intake, something that does not work for me.

Now the concept of fasting is not new and part of quite a few religions. It also makes sense if one looks at the history of human kind. When we were still hunters and gatherers we did not eat 5 times a day, but long periods of no food were followed by times of feeding. The understanding is that while you are fasting your body does not need to concentrate on digesting food but can concentrate on repairing itself.

I have done a combination of the above over the last 12 weeks and I have lost 8 kg. This might not sound much, but I did not have to lose much to begin with. For me it works very well and I really enjoy my two days of fasting every week.

Anyhow, at the end of the day it is another way of calorie restriction and it might work for you or not.

I love it and for maintenance I will just do one day a week

Stef.

mschicagocubs

I did the calculator on http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ and I didnt see anything about fasting....

I was under the impression I just eat 1536 calories on rest days and 1975 on workout days. Along with trying to keep my macros in order.

??

Krisydee103

Intermittent fasting comprises more than one version:

a) 5:2 fasting, two days a week you eat under 500 cal (women)/ 600 cal (men) and the other 5 days you just eat "normally", making sure though that you stay under your TDEE. (google: 5:2 fast or Dr Michael Mosley
b) 4:3 fasting, same as above, but three days fasting and four days eating under your TDEE
c) ADF = alternate day fasting or "The Every Other Day Diet" = every second day fasting. This form of dieting has been extensively researched by Dr. Krista Varadi and there are lot's of clinical trials about this. The 5:2 diet is based on her research. The major difference here is that you can not only eat what you like but also how much you like on your non fast days

All of the above are often combined with something called 16:8, 20:4 or 22:2, which means you eat all of your daily calories either within 8 hours, 4 hours or 2 hours and the rest of the day you eat nothing. Sometimes people just follow the eating window of 16:8... without restricting their calorie intake, something that does not work for me.

Now the concept of fasting is not new and part of quite a few religions. It also makes sense if one looks at the history of human kind. When we were still hunters and gatherers we did not eat 5 times a day, but long periods of no food were followed by times of feeding. The understanding is that while you are fasting your body does not need to concentrate on digesting food but can concentrate on repairing itself.

I have done a combination of the above over the last 12 weeks and I have lost 8 kg. This might not sound much, but I did not have to lose much to begin with. For me it works very well and I really enjoy my two days of fasting every week.

Anyhow, at the end of the day it is another way of calorie restriction and it might work for you or not.

I love it and for maintenance I will just do one day a week

Stef.

WOW thank you. This was very helpful. I did not know there were different "version" of intermittent fasting. Good to know. I am doing the 16:8 to begin.

baptistforlife

I love IF but what is funny is I do this naturally. I do not like breakfast it makes me feel sick. But people are always like you have to eat breakfast blah blah blah... I love 16:8 and it is so easy to do (for me) I have only lost weight one other time in my life and I went from 228 pounds down to 145 doing IF without even knowing it. I love that now people are seeing that we don't have to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day for me I cannot eat small meals once I start I go back for more so to limit myself and eat my calories in a certain amount of time and in two meals works so good. I hope you like doing it. Add me as a friend if you want another IF person on your team!!!

charleigh78

There are so many types of IF. Did you have a particular type in mind?