Intermittent Fasting Support Group?

boilermakerblaw

I completed a ~week of intermittent fasting doing 8 hrs eating/16 hrs fasting successfully (Except for Saturday where I broke the fast an hour-ish early for tailgating!)

Also, when reading more into the leangains blog I did see he recommended that women could do 14 hours instead of 16, so I may keep that number in mind for the future as well.

That being said I at first did find the skipping breakfast and not eating til 1 to be pretty tough at first. I was really shaky when trying to do work but when I finally did have that first meal it was *glorious*.

And I also found that I really wasn't *as* hungry when I did go to eat, which I found a little strange. But then we got to talking about it at work how fasting lowers neuropeptide y, etc. so it may act as a natural appetite suppressant!

I'm definitely liking it so far, though I still need to work on my diet, getting the protein in is a beast and I'm sick of protein bars and protein shakes! Inspired by leangains I've really bumped up the heavy weight on my P90x workouts (to the point where I was sore for days after doing it!) I'll admit I am very intimidated of going to the gym the "serious" lifting...and working out at home is just crazy convenient.

Anyway, the fasting is going well!

MsMouseMouse

I have been trying to find people on here that support this life style. It can end up being a very secretive way of life. Most people do not understand or believe in it. Dieters think that the 3-6 meals a day is the best way to go.. other than that you are starving yourself.
I know I have been there many many times. I have dieted my way up to 210lbs over the past 15-20 years. In 2010 my sugar went up to 13 ( I am from Canada, US people count it differently) I should be around 5-6. So I said this is it. It has to stop. I cut out sugars, not just sugar but all sugary things. Cut out bread and flour. Over a 4 month period I went down to 175. I didn't know it at the time but I was doing IF. I ate if hungry and if not I didn't. Most days I had breakfast and a big lunch around 2:30 and then did not feel like eating supper so I would go till the next day at breakfast before I ate again. All that time I felt I could not tell anyone as they would frown on the way I was eating and give me a lot of grief. I managed to keep that weight off until this pass summer when I let myself go, eating hungry or not and not good choices. I ended back up to 195. I have tried eating the way I was in the beginning. How ever I do need some help in how much protein I need daily and if I should still stick with the 1200 net cals that MFP sets. I am finding it hard to get in that many in such a small amount of time. If I eat a good lunch and a good dinner I still don't think I have eaten more than 800cals. Anyone here have any suggestions? Thanks for any help anyone can offer.

avenathus

I'm so glad I found this thread! I've been doing LG since July or so. But... well, I FAIL at it. I have *regained* BF and weight! I don't follow LG perfectly... I'm not perfect when it comes to cycling my macros, and I struggle like hell on the weekends. Weekends are tough for me because I spread out my time between family and friends and I REALLY have a hard time staying on track. Those are my lame excuses. I guess that is my main problem, is the weekend eating. But I'm also really confused about my calories and how much I need to eat. I'm 5' tall so my needs are presumably pretty low, and I keep it around 1300cals during the week. I DO lift heavy 3 times a week... but I also do a boot camp type thing 3 days a week. So maybe I'm overdoing the workouts? I'm clueless right now.

Beyond that I wonder if LG is for me. If I can't do it on weekends, then maybe it doesn't fit into my lifestyle. I attempted something like ESE on Monday but it more turned into a Warrior Diet type thing heh. I really enjoy fasting and not having to eat all day long so I hope to stick with some sort of fasted eating pattern for a looong time. But I do also wanna get ripped and see my darn abs. So I guess I need to clean up my act!! I'm gonna go back and read through this and the old thread and hopefully learn more

PS: if anyone looks at my diary, that's cool, but don't be confused by the numerous meals in there :P That was from before when I did 6 meals a day, and I was just too lazy to change it. So like today my "breakfast" was actually part of my dinner haha.

chrisdavey

boilermakerblaw: good news The first week is the hardest for sure. Gets easier as you go until it basically becomes habit.

Msmousemouse: I actually fit 4 "meals" into my 8hr window. I would definitely recommend keeping 1200 as the absolute minimum. Add some fats to up it easily. If you want to stay "clean", nuts, avocado etc. However, if you still below your maintenance cals then it doesn't "really" matter if it's that clean or not so have some ice cream if you want I aim for 1g/lb of BW minimum for protein as I exercise a lot but even if not exercising that much I'd still recommend a higher protein intake than MFP recommends.

avenathus: Weekends are hardest for me also. Weekdays are routine and easy. If I'm going out at night, I wait a bit longer for my first meal and make sure it is high volume and protein. Having said that, there is nothing to say that you HAVE to do it on the weekends as well. If you stick to maintenance cals within 8 hrs or not is not going to make a difference IMO.

cutmd

Martin's latest article on training. Love it. No farking around here (except when injured DAMN IT!)

http://www.leangains.com/2011/09/****arounditis.html

edit: need to replace the stars with the regular word for "fark", it is also the term used for sexual intercourse.

I like this article. However, when it comes to training I agree more with Rusty Moore of fitness black book. He endorses lean gains but acknowledges some women do gain muscle easily. When I lift heavy I gain more muscle then I want. I do a lot of HIIT and cardio so I'm not farking around. I believe in optimizing your training for your body type.

Avenathus, do you eat exercise cals? Keep in mind leangains is largely a tool to keep calories in check. I am lucky when it comes to weekends cause my hubby often skips breakfast or eats it late, but chrisdavey is right that there is no need to do it everyday. You could even eat less calories during the week and spike during the weekend. ESE can work with discipline. Try planning out a meal of lean meat and veggies for after the fast, or simply not eating until the next day to reset your hunger (36hr fast). It works!

Msmousemouse, Martin of lean gains recommends a 14hr fast for most women, 8 hours allows me to get my calories in more easily. Follow chris' recs. The lowest I'd go is 1000 if you're very petite

avenathus

thanks for the responses, Chris and Melissa I typically eat some of my exercise cals, rarely all of them. Particularly because I try to create a buffer in case I am overestimating them (no HRM). I do try to eat less during the week but still keep it between 1000-1300 net each day. I am thinking of trying a mix of ESE and LG and do a 24 hour fast on Friday and Monday, to give me a strong buffer for my weekend chaos haha. And then eat Leangains style and a little below maintenance for the week. Maybe that will give me the extra push to shred my BF.

As an aside I AM quite happy with the progress I've seen since I began heavy lifting. I feel really great and I do love the muscular look My arms and shoulders are kind of awesome! The abs/lower back and thighs are tricky though :P I'm going to check out Fitness Black Book, I've heard of it but haven't taken a look before.

MsMouseMouse

Thank you for the advice. Very much appreciated.
This weekend is our Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I am sort of fearing it.
I seem to have lots of will power most of the time but I am afraid I will start on a feasting binge.
Today I am close to a 24 hour fast. my last full meal was at 2pm yesterday and a part from 2 cups of strawberries and
a yellow pepper I have not had anything but water and a glass of diet Pepsi. I have to go to work in an hour so I will have to
eat something before I go so won't quite make the 24 hour mark. If I fast for my regular 16-18 hours and then eat a big turkey dinner ( can I have pumpkin pie also)? and then fast for the next 12-14 hours would that be okay? I suppose in a dinner like that I would get more than 1200 calories in.
Any advice would be helpful... Many thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to any other Canadians on here.

rileysowner

I see we rolled the thread over. Just posting to bump it and get in on my topics.

rileysowner

Thank you for the advice. Very much appreciated.
This weekend is our Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I am sort of fearing it.
I seem to have lots of will power most of the time but I am afraid I will start on a feasting binge.
Today I am close to a 24 hour fast. my last full meal was at 2pm yesterday and a part from 2 cups of strawberries and
a yellow pepper I have not had anything but water and a glass of diet Pepsi. I have to go to work in an hour so I will have to
eat something before I go so won't quite make the 24 hour mark. If I fast for my regular 16-18 hours and then eat a big turkey dinner ( can I have pumpkin pie also)? and then fast for the next 12-14 hours would that be okay? I suppose in a dinner like that I would get more than 1200 calories in.
Any advice would be helpful... Many thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to any other Canadians on here.

That would be fine in my mind. Occasional feast days are not a bad thing. It is doing it too often that is the problem. I intend to enjoy my Thanksgiving although I will try to exercise moderation.

mormas

Has anyone tried a 36 hour fast ? and would you recommend it ?

boilermakerblaw

Update! After 2 weeks of IF I've *finally* seen a change in the scale, (after ~3 months of no change in weight downward). Loving this so far! Breakfast is so overrated!

Additionally, it gets easier and easier to fast in the mornings. If the day is particularly tough I'll drink a cup of coffee at work and it'll carry me through. I tried a fasted workout yesterday and wasn't a fan, the BCAA supplement I purchased was sort of disgusting (luckily my so and roommate can tolerate it so it wasn't a waste of $$)...I think I'll stick to normal workouts for now. Anyone take a tastier version of BCAA's?

chrisdavey

You can get capsules no flavour

4theking

Update! After 2 weeks of IF I've *finally* seen a change in the scale, (after ~3 months of no change in weight downward). Loving this so far! Breakfast is so overrated!

Additionally, it gets easier and easier to fast in the mornings. If the day is particularly tough I'll drink a cup of coffee at work and it'll carry me through. I tried a fasted workout yesterday and wasn't a fan, the BCAA supplement I purchased was sort of disgusting (luckily my so and roommate can tolerate it so it wasn't a waste of $$)...I think I'll stick to normal workouts for now. Anyone take a tastier version of BCAA's?

You must eat breakfast to kick start your metabolism and to not go into starvation mode...........LOL

boilermakerblaw

I'll look into the capsules, hopefully I won't have to take a billion of them if I do decide to do the fasted workouts!

Yeah, I must totally be in starvation mode if I've lost a pound!

muriah2

Alright, I'm joining this thread after spending my morning reading through posts and looking into IF. I am going to start with trying Fast 5. I think that'll be the easiest for me to follow.

chrisdavey

I'll look into the capsules, hopefully I won't have to take a billion of them if I do decide to do the fasted workouts!

Yeah, I must totally be in starvation mode if I've lost a pound!

Aah yep, I only train fasted once a week so it's not an issue for me really.

catwrangler

saving to my topics

pork_belly

Alright, I'm joining this thread after spending my morning reading through posts and looking into IF. I am going to start with trying Fast 5. I think that'll be the easiest for me to follow.

Yes, the 19/5 schedule works great for me. Hope it does the same for you!!! Welcome aboard!!!!

firedragon064

I found out the reason that I could not have a good sleep because I went to sauna at night.
At 1st, I thought because of fasting so I stop this diet. I'm going to try do 24 hour fasting today.

Alloranx

Has anyone tried a 36 hour fast ? and would you recommend it ?

Yes, I have done quite a few 36 hour fasts. It's little different from a 24 hour fast. I haven't ever quantified it with multiple trials or anything, but I feel like when I do a 36 hour fast I get a little bump in weight loss, as would make sense. My research has indicated that if anything, the longer you go the more your body will burn fat and less it will burn muscle, until such time as your body starts running out of available fat (literal starvation), at which point it has no choice but to burn a lot of muscle. I see no reason to recommend against a 36 hour fast, nor have I heard anyone specifically give a reason why you couldn't, except that it might be socially inconvenient to skip that many meals. The reason a lot of people do 16 or 19 or 24 hour fasts is for convenience. If you can handle 36 hours, more power to you. The only proviso might be if you already have a very low body fat percentage, then you might be flirting with a lot of muscle loss and shorter fasts would probably serve you better.