Intermittent Fasting, What's your take on it?

So I have been following the Hodgetwins, Low Carb Cory and Elliot Hulse on You tube and I'm often times hearing about this Intermittent Fasting. and how it helps with weight loss and kind of makes the body healthier through detox and etc. But what's your take on it? If you have tried it has it helped you? have you noticed muscle gains and a good amt of fat loss?
«1

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Which form of IF are you interested in? I've done 16:8 and had good results with it, but 5:2 or JUDDD aren't something I've tried.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    I've lost the last 80 lbs IFing. It's the perfect way for me to lose and maintain. Looking back on my late teens/early 20s, when I was my smallest, I was doing some form of IFing to lose and maintain and just didn't even realize it.

    It's great for people who are able to go long periods of time without eating. That feels natural to me. I'll be IFing likely for the rest of my life, and gladly so.
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    its just an eating schedule. if you have no problem staying within your allotted daily calories then there is no real benefit.

    that being said, it helps some people tremendously due to the fact that they are able to eat bigger meals within their eating window, and many find that it helps reduce hunger throughout the day
  • matgh124
    matgh124 Posts: 25 Member
    Which form of IF are you interested in? I've done 16:8 and had good results with it, but 5:2 or JUDDD aren't something I've tried.

    Thanks for responding. I'm right now trying 16:8 for now. Thinking I'm going to do this for about a week or two and then work my way up to doing 5:2.
  • AdrianBry
    AdrianBry Posts: 138 Member
    I use it and been using it before I even knew about due to my busy schedule. It's basically skipping breakfast. I usually fast 16+ hours a day and workout while fasted to increase fat loss. I haven't lost muscle mass.

    It's not for everybody (like any other diet) have to find what is best for you
  • matgh124
    matgh124 Posts: 25 Member
    I use it and been using it before I even knew about due to my busy schedule. It's basically skipping breakfast. I usually fast 16+ hours a day and workout while fasted to increase fat loss. I haven't lost muscle mass.

    It's not for everybody (like any other diet) have to find what is best for you

    Thanks for the advice bro. I'm also pretty busy (work full time and go to school) and I only have a chance to go to the gym in the evening. do you think I will still benefit to working out "un-fasted"? my schedule is usually fasting from 9pm until 3pm the next day. Thanks
  • thavoice
    thavoice Posts: 1,326 Member

    Thanks for the advice bro. I'm also pretty busy (work full time and go to school) and I only have a chance to go to the gym in the evening. do you think I will still benefit to working out "un-fasted"? my schedule is usually fasting from 9pm until 3pm the next day. Thanks
    Love it.
    I do 3 twenty four hour fasts a week and find it easier and easier. It has re-taught my body what hunger is and now even on the days/weekends when I can eat whatever I found myself eating much, much less as I get full faster.
  • Scarlett_S
    Scarlett_S Posts: 467 Member
    It works for me. For whatever reason, I never want to eat in the mornings or right after the gym. If I hold off and have an early lunch (11-11:30) I easily stay in my calorie allotment for the day because I tend to want to eat more at night.
  • lolabluola
    lolabluola Posts: 212 Member
    It's probably not for everyone - but I've been doing this since May now and I don't think I would ever take it out of my lifestyle... it simplifies my life and makes me feel fantastic. :) good luck!
  • jason_adams
    jason_adams Posts: 187 Member
    I had a lot of success with the 8 hour diet. I needed to work my way into it as making it to the start of the 8 hour window was a big challenge. I took it in steps and 1 hour increments by backing up breakfast. Aiming for 9, then 10, then 11. Eventually I could get to 12 or 1 and not really notice. Being VERY busy at work also helped. I had to switch back to monitoring (hello MFP!) once I got a new project that was much slower paced and where I was often working on my own. I started eating out of boredom. I'm slowly trying to creep breakfast back up to 10am onwards, and cut eating @ 7pm. It's tough with early morning lifting and the family schedule, so I'll play it by ear and track calories to keep things in order.

    So as the poster above said ^^ it's what works for YOU that's important. But it's definitely worth a try!
  • cccoursey
    cccoursey Posts: 116 Member
    I use it and been using it before I even knew about due to my busy schedule. It's basically skipping breakfast. I usually fast 16+ hours a day and workout while fasted to increase fat loss. I haven't lost muscle mass.

    It's not for everybody (like any other diet) have to find what is best for you

    ^ This is how it happened for me as well. I am not much of a breakfast person. So I just eat once I get home around 2pm.
  • Bostonsoul
    Bostonsoul Posts: 151 Member
    I read this as intermittent fisting....god I need help.
  • sevia121
    sevia121 Posts: 2 Member
    I do 16:8, Skip breakfast, eat between 11am to 7pm. If I'm strict with it it causes weight loss like none other. I can drop 4lb a week, as long as I keep my meals normal sized and paleo-esque (healthy). I also noticed I never ate breakfast in HS when I was at my lowest weight, so I was probably doing IF without noticing it too...
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
    It's not if you're breastfeeding, pregnant, or if you exercise strenuously. It's not for me. But I've heard it really works and it's not unsafe.
  • littlefoot612
    littlefoot612 Posts: 156 Member
    I don't think it necessarily helps weight loss, it's just another way to do it. Calories in/calories out will still be how you lose weight, IF is just a different way to schedule when you get those calories in. It's personal preference, I prefer to eat daily and I have no problem losing weight that way. As for detoxing, I do that several times a day, mainly on account of how much fluid I consume daily.
  • Meerataila
    Meerataila Posts: 1,885 Member
    It seems to curb my appetite and give me energy. Ironically, because I do a combo of 5:2 (with usually no food at all on fast days) and one meal a day on most days, I'm a high carb vegan who spends most of her time in ketosis. I think that helps with the energy and appetite, at least in my case, since I was in and out of low carb for two years before this and so I'm very keto adapted.
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    It seems to curb my appetite and give me energy. Ironically, because I do a combo of 5:2 (with usually no food at all on fast days) and one meal a day on most days, I'm a high carb vegan who spends most of her time in ketosis. I think that helps with the energy and appetite, at least in my case, since I was in and out of low carb for two years before this and so I'm very keto adapted.
    do you mean low carb?

    also, how do you manage low carb veganism? serious question, that must be tough
  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    I think I've read of this on NPR.

    If my calorie goal is 1450 per day, then if I decided to do intermittent fasting, I'd do 500 calories for 2 days, and my normal goal for the other 5 days? Or how does this work?
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    I think I've read of this on NPR.

    If my calorie goal is 1450 per day, then if I decided to do intermittent fasting, I'd do 500 calories for 2 days, and my normal goal for the other 5 days? Or how does this work?
    basically your supposed to eat at maintenance every day except the 2 that you "fast"
  • HangoverSquare
    HangoverSquare Posts: 128 Member
    If I wanted to try this, then I'd eat my 1450 calories between 12 noon and 7pm and then not eat again until noon the next day?
  • Meerataila
    Meerataila Posts: 1,885 Member
    do you mean low carb?

    also, how do you manage low carb veganism? serious question, that must be tough

    Nope I'm high carb vegan. Yet I I check regularly and I am, according to ketostix, in ketosis quite often. Weird, huh? Only thing I can attribute it to is my eating schedule and being keto adapted enough to move easily and quickly to producing ketones.
  • Iwishyouwell
    Iwishyouwell Posts: 1,888 Member
    It's not if you're breastfeeding, pregnant, or if you exercise strenuously. It's not for me. But I've heard it really works and it's not unsafe.

    Plenty of IFers "exercise strenuously". Some of my best, most productive workouts have been in a fasted state.
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member

    Nope I'm high carb vegan. Yet I I check regularly and I am, according to ketostix, in ketosis quite often. Weird, huh? Only thing I can attribute it to is my eating schedule and being keto adapted enough to move easily and quickly to producing ketones.
    very weird.

    i just looked into it a bit though, could be caused by high amounts of exercise or fasting, basically any situation where glycogen stored are depleted, so i guess if you do 5:2 its not totally uncommon especially if you're an active person
  • FrenchMob
    FrenchMob Posts: 1,167 Member
    its just an eating schedule. if you have no problem staying within your allotted daily calories then there is no real benefit.

    that being said, it helps some people tremendously due to the fact that they are able to eat bigger meals within their eating window, and many find that it helps reduce hunger throughout the day
    Actually, it's more than an eating schedule. There's also added health benefits. Look into "Eat Stop Eat". He explains those benefits along with the referenced research behind it.
  • lolabluola
    lolabluola Posts: 212 Member
    very weird.

    i just looked into it a bit though, could be caused by high amounts of exercise or fasting, basically any situation where glycogen stored are depleted, so i guess if you do 5:2 its not totally uncommon especially if you're an active person

    yeah from what i've read and experience ( and I used to use the test sticks) is something about unless you are testing blood - the urine sticks only measure the presence of ketones in the urine so "The liver will make ketones from body fat, the fat you EAT, and from alcohol --- the ketone strips have no way of distinguishing the source of the ketones. So, if you test every day after dinner, and dinner usually contains a lot of fat, then you may very well test for large amounts of ketones all the time. However this does not indicate that any BODY fat was burned."

    From experience alcohol will also cause the test strips to be dark purple for me and dehydration as well - days I don't drink as much water. Or if I test right after I have some fatty foods or exercise

    or something like that - I still like them and use them sometimes for fun though :)
  • BigT555
    BigT555 Posts: 2,067 Member
    Actually, it's more than an eating schedule. There's also added health benefits. Look into "Eat Stop Eat". He explains those benefits along with the referenced research behind it.
    i've heard this before, it explains in some detail on the leangains website about the additional benefits as well, i just dont think theres enough info to come to any solid conclusions about it (and this is coming from someone who does 18:6 IF). for now ill just stick to it makes it easier to create a calorie deficit
  • Every time you sleep it's 'said' that you are in a mild state of ketosis by the time you wake up. That morning spike of insulin that wakes you is automatic from our bodies. By doing IF you are extending that window of ketosis longer (after that initial morning spike). This is supposed to keep your blood sugar spikes non-existant for those hours and keep you in a fat burning state, instead of a sugar burning state. IF ups certain chemical pathways in the body that are thought to be beneficial as well (growth hormone and neurotropic factors).

    http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html
    http://www.gnolls.org/3615/intermittent-fasting-matters-sometimes-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-calorie-to-your-body-part-viii/
  • FrenchMob
    FrenchMob Posts: 1,167 Member
  • lindsey1979
    lindsey1979 Posts: 2,395 Member
    I do 5:2 or 4:3 depending on how I'm feeling. I've found it to be incredibly easy -- I didn't try it for a long time because I was afraid it would be too hard. I was SHOCKED by how manageable I found it.

    I specifically looked into because of the benefits seen in fasting for insulin sensitivity (I'm insulin resistant so this was a BIG advantage) and IGF-2 shifts (having to do with cellular repair).

    So, now I have a much easier (for me) way of creating my weekly calorie deficit and get the added benefits of increased insulin sensitivity and IGF-2 shifts. I've found it easier and easier over time and as someone else pointed out, I find myself less hungry on my TDEE days.

    So far, I've found greater results overall than just with my previous daily deficits. So there appears to be some additional advantage for weight loss eating like this. I can't explain why that is, but it is what I'm seeing for myself thus far. It's actually what I tried to bust through a 6 week plateau from just daily calorie restriction.
  • icrushit
    icrushit Posts: 773 Member
    Dabbled a little with finishing eating earlier in the evening, and stretching out the time I ate anything first the following day. Can't admit to any success with the experiment, as I found anything over about 14 hours between eating to be disruptive to my eating pattern, and how easily I could control what I ate. Maybe I'm just too used to eating something in the morning, although at the moment I'm probably doing something like 14:10, as I aim to stop eating by 8pm, and as I get out for a morning walk before I eat, I generally don't have breakfast until 10am. I consider this more good discipline for me rather than any type of IF though, as I have been a nighttime eater in the past, so some sort of structure around when I eat I find helpful to avoid that, and remind me why its not a good idea for me to eat late at night, lol :)