Intermittent fasting

rose313

I have been reading up on intermittent fasting and one article I read says it is fine to have green tea, coffee, or a similar zero calorie beverage during the times that you are not eating.

I normally only eat in an 8 hour window anyway. It's just what I'm comfortable doing. I have done this before hearing about IF, and I have not had any issues eating this way, so I was excited to hear that IF was a thing and that eating this way is not bad for me.

However, I do have my coffee in the morning and it is 35 calories. I also have a protein shake a couple hours later which is 170 calories.

This is one of the articles I read: http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/08/06/a-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting/

In that article, it states: During the “fasted state,” your body doesn’t have a recently consumed meal to use as energy, so it is more likely to pull from the fat stored in your body, rather than the glucose in your blood stream or glycogen in your muscles/liver.

However, I am consuming 200 calories during my "fasted state". Therefore, is it pointless for me to really stick to IF since my body is not pulling from the fat stored in my body anyway, it's pulling from the glucose in my blood stream from the protein shake I just drank?

ThatMouse

If you're consuming 200cal in your "fasted state", you're not fasted.

A dash of cream is okay in coffee, maybe, but try it black if you must have it. A protein shake will definitely not keep you in a fasted state.

Read through this: http://www.leangains.com/.
He's got a lot of info on IF and has links to some interesting studies on the effects of working out fasted.

rose313

That's what I thought. I can, instead, drink my protein shake at noon, like I am doing today. That would give me an 8 hour eating window. However, I cannot give up my 35 calorie coffee in the morning. I get grumpy at work without it and it hurts my productivity. It's just an iced coffee with skim milk and no sugar. But will that mess up my fasted state?

I use skim milk because I hate cream, it really bothers my stomach and it tastes terrible to me.

segovm

I know this might sound shocking, but if you want to give the fast thing a real go why not just drop the coffee for a few weeks and see how you feel?

I still do two big cups in the morning but my eventual plan is to phase that out. When I was healthy in my twenties I dropped caffeine altogether for five years and honestly as much as most of us love it, I had far more all day energy without it compared to the short term energy boost I got with it.

You're young, if you are going to do it now is a good time to give it a try and see if it works for you. The key for me when I didn't drink it was to get up and do some exercise instead. Most of us build a silly coffee ritual where we drink and pretend to wake up which mostly amounts to sitting on our butts for a long while after we get out of bed.

When I do get the coffee out, it'll actually give me an extra hour a day I spend doing nothing but drinking coffee right now.

Just something to consider in case it hadn't occurred to you.

ThatMouse

I know this might sound shocking, but if you want to give the fast thing a real go why not just drop the coffee for a few weeks and see how you feel?

I still do two big cups in the morning but my eventual plan is to phase that out. When I was healthy in my twenties I dropped caffeine altogether for five years and honestly as much as most of us love it, I had far more all day energy without it compared to the short term energy boost I got with it.

You're young, if you are going to do it now is a good time to give it a try and see if it works for you. The key for me when I didn't drink it was to get up and do some exercise instead. Most of us build a silly coffee ritual where we drink and pretend to wake up which mostly amounts to sitting on our butts for a long while after we get out of bed.

When I do get the coffee out, it'll actually give me an extra hour a day I spend doing nothing but drinking coffee right now.

Just something to consider in case it hadn't occurred to you.

QFT.

He's right - try without the coffee. You may have a few weeks of hurt, but you might surprise yourself with the level of clarity you can gain by leaving it behind.

I stopped drinking coffee every morning after I graduated (and there's free cofee at my work, so it's not that it's not accessible), and I find now that I'm fine without it. It took a bit, but I'm alright without coffee now.

And skim milk is fine - by "cream", I meant what one puts in their coffee in general. Try it at first, but honestly look at cutting it out. I can't remember the number specifically that Martin Berkham quotes, but its something to the tune of 15-20cal or something as an upper limit. Mind, it's probably flexible.

Best case, cut the milk completely and just drink it black if you must have it.

jenny3073

I agree that your shake has enough calories to not be considered fasting, good idea to move it into your 8 hour window. I read that a tiny bit of calories if you must have something in your coffee should be ok.

I read about IF on Sunday and started on Monday, doing various internet searches for more info as I go along. We eat dinner around 8pm so I had to start my window a bit later in the day than I'm used to, it took a couple days to get over it but I haven't been suffering. I am surprised I never heard of it before, but if I did I was probably immediately turned off by the word "fasting" - that has never appealed to me in the slightest bit, however, in this concept, it's remarkably easy, especially when I'm sleeping during at least half of the fasting period.

I haven't been eating more (or really less) than usual, I have more energy and I've lost 3 pounds (some water, I'm sure - but I haven't lost much of anything in the past year, so something happened there). I feel more in control of my cravings, and in fact I have not been craving fast food or even Coke, which is my downfall. Once dinner is consumed, I don't even think about food for at least 12 hours and I've been finding it somewhat easy to hold off for the 16 hours. It seems to get easier each day.

I haven't had a drop of caffeine in 3 days and I have more energy without it, just took some adjusting.

I don't know how long I'll stay on this schedule, I'm still looking around for long term effects, and I read that women should try to stay in the 12-14 hour fasting range rather than 16 hours (it apparently affects fertility hormones).

Just stating my experience, not suggesting this to anyone. Hope you are having success!

LazSommer

Stop getting your info from blogs.