Intermittent Fasting Support Group?

DaddyMantz

I am one week into Leangains. I love that I have a lot of energy in the morning and not spending a lot of time cooking, eating ,and feeling full. My goal is to gain weight and I have been doing that by adding whole milk to my diet. I am up 5 lbs as of this morning and 3 of those pounds are from muscle. I believe that on the Leangains protocol, I can easily cut a day a week on my diet and keep the fat off. Let's see how it works.

Timdog57

I'm in my second day of doing 16/8 fasting... I really enjoyed being able to eat a feast at dinner time, and I was a lot less hungry in the morning than I thought I would be. Hoping this will help me break through the platuea I've been stuck on for a while...

LizC26

I've been doing a mixture of ESE and Lean-gains for the past 4 weeks and have had great results!! So glad I found this thread!!

hush7hush

OMG.
How am I JUST now finding this?!

Lol, I felt that way last week!

I just started 3 weeks ago.
I fast for 24-36 hours, once per week.
What do you do?!

I'm fasting 5 days a week, for 18 - 24 hrs at a time and eating when hungry on weekends without worrying about numbers (as much as I can, anyway!) So far it's working well It's helping me listen to my body, and it is shrinking my stomach (which is awesome!). What kind of results have you had?

I lost 3 pounds this past week.
And I started doing it to break a plateau, and I lost 2 pounds one week.
Then 1 pound the next week.
So 6 in 3 weeks, which seems slow, but since I was stuck, it's good for me.
We'll see how this week works out.

Marlinedorcinvil

So I did an 18 hour fast today and the issue that I have is that I can not even get close to my calorie intake during my eating time?? Is that bad. I only had 400 calories today. I'm not hungry and I don't like forcing myself to eat when I'm not hungry.

rileysowner

So I did an 18 hour fast today and the issue that I have is that I can not even get close to my calorie intake during my eating time?? Is that bad. I only had 400 calories today. I'm not hungry and I don't like forcing myself to eat when I'm not hungry.

If you are going to go leangains style you need to eat all your calories in the 6 hours a day when you eat. If you are doing ESE you eat a normal meal and just go on, ESE is usually a 24 hour fast.

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blockhead922

Well, I think it's a neat thing if it's for religious reasons!
Nutritionally though, you should make sure you're not making up for the missed calories by binging.

kellieprindle

I can't right now, but when I could fast I noticed that a 1 day fast would help me get a handle on my cravings...listen to your body, if it works, go for it!




Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

hush7hush

So I did an 18 hour fast today and the issue that I have is that I can not even get close to my calorie intake during my eating time?? Is that bad. I only had 400 calories today. I'm not hungry and I don't like forcing myself to eat when I'm not hungry.

If you are going to go leangains style you need to eat all your calories in the 6 hours a day when you eat. If you are doing ESE you eat a normal meal and just go on, ESE is usually a 24 hour fast.

I have this problem too. I'm usually around 400-600cals on my fast days, but I don't worry about it. I don't think our bodies run on 24hr time...

Uhh. I eat nothing on my fasting days.
Maybe it's just me, but one purpose of it for me is the calorie restriction.
Which is why my fasts go for 24-36 hours, depending on the time I start.

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hush7hush

So I did an 18 hour fast today and the issue that I have is that I can not even get close to my calorie intake during my eating time?? Is that bad. I only had 400 calories today. I'm not hungry and I don't like forcing myself to eat when I'm not hungry.

If you are going to go leangains style you need to eat all your calories in the 6 hours a day when you eat. If you are doing ESE you eat a normal meal and just go on, ESE is usually a 24 hour fast.

I have this problem too. I'm usually around 400-600cals on my fast days, but I don't worry about it. I don't think our bodies run on 24hr time...

Uhh. I eat nothing on my fasting days.
Maybe it's just me, but one purpose of it for me is the calorie restriction.
Which is why my fasts go for 24-36 hours, depending on the time I start.

My 24hr fasts go dinner to dinner

Ohhhh, I gotcha.
I do mine on Wednesdays, because I stop eating at 3am on Wednesday morning (technically my work-Tuesday).
And then I allow myself to eat when I wake up on Thursday.
So it can be between 24 and 36 hours, depending on my sleep schedule.

Did I already ask, do you work out on your fast days?

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Marlinedorcinvil

How many calories are you taking in if your fast ends in the middle of the day. Are you trying to get all of your daily calories in or are you just eating whatever keeps you full? I never tend to be hungry after my fasting.

BR1986FB

So I did an 18 hour fast today and the issue that I have is that I can not even get close to my calorie intake during my eating time?? Is that bad. I only had 400 calories today. I'm not hungry and I don't like forcing myself to eat when I'm not hungry.

If you are going to go leangains style you need to eat all your calories in the 6 hours a day when you eat. If you are doing ESE you eat a normal meal and just go on, ESE is usually a 24 hour fast.

I do LeanGains and when I break my 16 hour fast, at noon, I'm usually consuming about 1200-1400 calories. I have one other meal, right before 8pm which is about another 1000-1200 calories. Has been working spectacular.

Huskeryogi

I stumbled onto leangains.com a couple days ago and I'm going to try it. I love all of his backup with studies, but my favorite part is that it fits so well with my life. Eating all of my calories in a 10 hour window and most of them in 6 (first meal is small) means you can actually have a full dinner. The 6 snacks a day thing is boring (I end up eating the same things every day), time consuming, and way too restrictive.

chrisdavey

I would say most of you know this but having a filling high volume meal doesn't mean it is going to be high calorie. Ie. I've been having massive vegetable/chicken soups and they only come out to about 500 cals with a lot of meat in them!

cutmd

I would say most of you know this but having a filling high volume meal doesn't mean it is going to be high calorie. Ie. I've been having massive vegetable/chicken soups and they only come out to about 500 cals with a lot of meat in them!

Yeah, and I like to have huge vegetable stir fries with chicken and kelp or tofu shirataki noodles. Delicious at about 300-400 cals. I wish I could find a reliable lunch transport for soup...

chrisdavey

I wish I could find a reliable lunch transport for soup...

I was thinking exactly this this morning as I was dishing out my bone broth into containers (that I don't trust for travel!)

and I wasn't 100% on my window yesterday. Went to parents for dinner, they took forever to cook as usual , then wasn't home in time for my regular pre-bed snack. Woke up at 2am by the sounds of my stomach rumbling hardcore haha. Smashed some cottage cheese and nat pb and could then finally get back to sleep :happy:

LdyGeko

I wish I could find a reliable lunch transport for soup...

I was thinking exactly this this morning as I was dishing out my bone broth into containers (that I don't trust for travel!)

and I wasn't 100% on my window yesterday. Went to parents for dinner, they took forever to cook as usual , then wasn't home in time for my regular pre-bed snack. Woke up at 2am by the sounds of my stomach rumbling hardcore haha. Smashed some cottage cheese and nat pb and could then finally get back to sleep :happy:

What about an old-fashioned thermos for soup? Would keep it warm too....

northstar699

Totally love this idea! I'm going to do my first 24 hour day tomorrow. The problem is that I'm a night shift nurse and even though my fast will start at 5pm, that's really right after my breakfast. The plan is to eat a normal breakfast, work all night, sleep most of the day, do a light workout after I wake up, then eat a normal meal around 5. I know most people start after dinner and sleep through the first part of the fast. Anybody else ever try to start a fast the other way around?

cutmd

Totally love this idea! I'm going to do my first 24 hour day tomorrow. The problem is that I'm a night shift nurse and even though my fast will start at 5pm, that's really right after my breakfast. The plan is to eat a normal breakfast, work all night, sleep most of the day, do a light workout after I wake up, then eat a normal meal around 5. I know most people start after dinner and sleep through the first part of the fast. Anybody else ever try to start a fast the other way around?

Hey, I'm an ER doc, so my work schedule varies. I try to change my window accordingly. I have found for some reason that once I start eating it is harder for me to fast. Psychologically it seems to work better for me to wake up fasting. So for my overnights when doing ESE I will eat in the am, go to bed, fast all night, and then eat in the am. It really depends on what works better for your psyche and hunger levels.

Lady Gecko, for some reason I've never had anything not leak on me, even my thermoses used to do it. Haven't tried any since I was 12. Have any recs?

lodro

It's interesting how intermittent fasting made me more in tune with what i need to eat to function in a certain situation. The past 2 weeks I've been guiding people who are doing wilderness fasts. They go out to stay in a natural place, without food, but with water, for 4 days and nights. I've been running basecamp and cooking on the preparation and return days. This is physically heavy work, because everything has to be brought to basecamp by hand, on wheelbarrows: food, water, camping supplies, everything. I noticed how I quickly dropped the intermittent fasting regime in favor of eating much more carbohydrate, mainly, i suppose, to keep my muscles happy, because they were burning glucose like crazy. Except for two days when I was the water pourer in the sweat lodges we run before the wilderness fasts start: we also tell participants to fast as much as possible in the 8 hours preceding the lodge, and this the firekeeper and I do as well, then after the lodge, we eat breakfast.

What I found interesting is how much more in tune I am with how my body and eating patterns react to different situations. I'm back home now and resting from a lot of hard physical work and I went back to my regular leangains intermittent fasting with not problems. Also I'm pleased to notice that I've maintained my weight nicely, neither gaining nor losing. This balance is what I hope to maintain and intermittent fasting has helped me tremendously in freeing myself from feeding patterns that weren't helping my body.

katkins3

I love IF and have been doing it once a week for about a month now. I normally will start my fast after lunch. On days that I fast I dont eat differently or try to gorge, I eat a small breakfast and a normally lunch (chicken/veggies) then let the fasting begin around 1pm. I normally hit the gym at 5:30 and dont get home until after 7. I just drink lots of water and head to bed early and let the fat burning begin while I sleep. Its awesome and when I wake up the next day I have already fasted for 15 hours and most of it without knowing it. I again have a light breakfast (2 hardboiled eggs/coffee) and let the day begin. There are a lot of na sayers that will tell you it's so unhealthy and you will go into starvation mode, but I have yet to do that and I find I wake up with tons of energy and ready to start the day.

Stick with it!!!

This description is very helpful. I hadn't thought about fasting, but this is interesting and do-able. Thanks for sharing! I will start a similar pattern soon.

LdyGeko

I will check my hubby's thermos and see what brand it is, I bought it in the camping section at Walmart, I think. I think its the actual "Thermos" brand - big stainless steel thing with a black handle on the side, and it's got a screw-in plug top and then another black plastic one that screws in on top that can be used as a cup. I fill it with coffee for him every morning and he throws that thing around all the time - has never had a leak at all. I fill it at around 6 a.m. and he drinks his last cup around 2 p.m. - he says it stays warm all day.

I've used the other ones that are typically used for soup - you'll know the ones I mean, they usually have bright-colored plastic outside cover and the lid is a plastic cup with a little finger handle - those things leak like a sieve, LOL....

Totally love this idea! I'm going to do my first 24 hour day tomorrow. The problem is that I'm a night shift nurse and even though my fast will start at 5pm, that's really right after my breakfast. The plan is to eat a normal breakfast, work all night, sleep most of the day, do a light workout after I wake up, then eat a normal meal around 5. I know most people start after dinner and sleep through the first part of the fast. Anybody else ever try to start a fast the other way around?

Hey, I'm an ER doc, so my work schedule varies. I try to change my window accordingly. I have found for some reason that once I start eating it is harder for me to fast. Psychologically it seems to work better for me to wake up fasting. So for my overnights when doing ESE I will eat in the am, go to bed, fast all night, and then eat in the am. It really depends on what works better for your psyche and hunger levels.

Lady Gecko, for some reason I've never had anything not leak on me, even my thermoses used to do it. Haven't tried any since I was 12. Have any recs?

BR1986FB

This fasting is like falling off a log. So easy, yet so effective !

stephparee

so i have read through all these posts and i am confused as to how this whole fasting thing works?
do you eat all your calories in one meal at night?

I eat 3 very small meals per day, am i going to put myself into starvation mode from doing this?
a little bit of insight would be great.
thanks!

northstar699

What are thoughts on sugar free gum during a fasting period?

YvetteBabich

Well, yesterday I failed at a weekly 30 hour fast for the first time in a year! I have no idea why that happened, fasting has been easy for me for a really long time.

Oh well, my resolve is strengthened for take 2 today...

I guess my point is to keep in mind that if you do the 24 hour non-daily fast thing, there is always tomorrow if you it ends up just not working out. (To a point, obviously. I don't really advocate the "oh well I'll do it tomorrow" attitude.) Love the flexibility of ESE!

When you do your fast do you make up for your calories in another day or just not worry about them? I've never done this before and an all day fast seems better for, just trying to gain information to make sure I do things right!

Personally I don't worry about them because I don't really count calories religiously anyway (yes, I realize this is a calorie counting site, but I'm more using it for the incredible support, and to stay focused on fitness and healthy choices)
BUT, to answer your question, the goal of ESE style fasting is to create a calorie deficit using the 1 or 2 fasting days a week. It stresses a weekly calorie deficit rather than daily, so yes, if you are ESE-ing and counting calories, you would want to try and distribute your fasting day calories throughout the rest of the week, especially if you're at a 1200 cal daily goal according to MFP.

What are thoughts on sugar free gum during a fasting period?

Unless you're chewing a ridiculous amount of gum, it's negligible and totally fine. I used to chew gum all the time during fasts, but I stopped because it would just activate my salivary glands too much, and that combined with constantly chewing just made me wish I had some real food.

BigBoneSista

Ok I wish to do this but I do 2-a-days with cardio and strength training at different times. I do ChaLean Extreme, Turbo Fire and Zumba. I rarely net 1200 calories a day according to MFP because I do not eat back any exercise calories. But I eat solid meals that keep me full. I'm not going to eat more food just to satisfy some numbers game. Now if my body tells me I need more calories I will grab something extra to eat. I am actively working on lowering my BF% as effectively as possible. Would this work for me?