Intermittent Fasting Support Group?

jessradtke

Just wanted to say how excited I was to see this thread. I fast for different reasons than most of you, but it's exciting to see so many other people who fast.

Huskeryogi

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!

There are different ways of doing this. I 'fast' from 10PM (bedtime) until noon the next day (14 hours) and then I eat 3 meals over the next 10 hours. A small meal (350-400 cal) at noon to break the fast. Then when I get home from work I do my workout then eat my biggest meal (usually around 6:30 - wish it could be earlier but doesn't work with my work schedule). That meal is generally about 50% of my daily calories or 700-800 calories. I LOVE that I can eat a real dinner while doing this. Then about 9:00-9:30 I eat my final meal of about 300 calories.

How many calories are you netting daily? Looking at the studies referenced on - leangains.com - I don't believe that skipping meals puts you into starvation mode anymore, but eating too few calories over a 3-4 day period will.

MeekMeals

I'm an IF'er!! Have you guys checked out www.leangains.com??? its soooo informative on intermittent fasting. I've been doing it for a couple weeks, and finally broke my plateau.

northstar699

Just to update the people considering this plan, I can be your guinea pig. I'm doing my first 24 hour fast today and I only have 7 hours left to go. For those of you doing the math, my schedule is weird because I'm a night nurse. So far it has been really easy. I ate a normal meal before I went to bed and when I woke up I already had a good part of the day done. I was originally planning to eat when I woke up and then start the fast, but I thought that I might get hungry (weak) 4-5 hours after that meal. This way I had already slept through that initial craving. I did feel like I wanted to eat when I woke up but it was more of a mental hunger than an actual hunger and was over as soon as I got my day started. I've had tons of energy at work and all I've had is some water with lemon juice and a couple sticks of sugar free gum. When a nurse next to me started eating fries I hardly felt anything about it. Usually when I have something healthy to eat I get really tempted to cheat, but knowing I won't be eating anything today made that not an option whatsoever. It's going so well that I may extend my fast to 32 hours and just eat when I wake up again.

All in all, I'm really happy with it so far and I hope the scale agrees with me! I'll keep you posted...

mideon_696

also started today guys.

was an easy first fast.

then BAM, 1221 cals for first meal. lol.

Teemo

How many calories are you netting daily? Looking at the studies referenced on - leangains.com - I don't believe that skipping meals puts you into starvation mode anymore, but eating too few calories over a 3-4 day period will.

Putting aside the question of exactly what "starvation mode" is, if you're fasting you should still be consuming the same number of calories as if you weren't.

If your maintenance caloric intake is 2500, and you're dieting at 2000/day, you should still be eating 2000 calories per day.

mideon_696

agreed.

**** i eat a lot.

chrisdavey

quality "breakfast" mate :laugh:

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?

I stop eating at 7pm on the first day (it varies) and start eating again at 7pm the next day. So far 24hrs has been my longest fast. How do you find 36hr fasts? Are they much harder than 24hrs? I keep everything the same, so since I fast five days a week for varying hours (between 18 - 24hrs), I just do my usual workouts each day. So that ranges from ballet, pilates, walking, circuit training and gymnastics. I break the fast first though, usually with something small like a probiotic yoghurt drink (except on ballet days; I have dinner before ballet and the snack after if I need it). How about you?

Sorry about the delay.
My 36 hour fasts never really seem to be much harder, but when I wake up from a 36-hour I always feel much clearer and focused. But then again, I am asleep the vast majority of my fast, really.

northstar699

How on earth do you guys eat all of your calories in such a short window without getting sick?!!? I'm not even halfway there and I feel like I'm going to have to start all over soon, if you get my drift. Ugh!

4theking

How on earth do you guys eat all of your calories in such a short window without getting sick?!!? I'm not even halfway there and I feel like I'm going to have to start all over soon, if you get my drift. Ugh!

Never had a problem with this....could be why I have always been fat.

I ate 4,000 calories in 7 hours on my spike day Saturday. I was stuffed after that.

cassmsta

I am really interested if someone would teach me how?

4theking

I am really interested if someone would teach me how?

There are different kinds of fasting. I do leangains 16/8. Basically, I eat my last meal at around 6pm then don't eat anything until 10am. Not to confuse you, but I also undereat from 10am to 3pm. Meaning, I eat just a bit until 3pm and then eat the majority of my calories from 3-6pm. This is not part of leangains, just my preference and it is basically the warrior diet.

mescla

Sounds like something i want to try.. How do you do it?? Can you guys share what you do? Wonder how that would work with this stomach of mine which suffers from gastric reflux..

chrisdavey

I fast until 1pm. I eat my lunch then. Usually have some sort of snack/protein shake about 4ish. Workout at 5ish. PWO shake. Then massive dinner. Last meal is finished by 9pm.

I am doing leangains 16/8 as well. Check the website as there is heaps more info there.

High protein
lower carbs on non workout days, higher fats
higher carb on workout days, lower fats.

katkins3

I like that there are so many ways that people fast and that its OK to fast the way you see best.
I did my first IF yesterday and it was easy and no down side.
I chose an easy first try. No food from 1pm to 7am the next day, for an 18 hour fast. Basically skipped dinner and saved over 600 calories for the day. Had a normal breakfast.
I intend to repeat the eighteen hour fast once a week until Aug. 8th and evaluate.

chantel111184

Sounds like something i want to try.. How do you do it?? Can you guys share what you do? Wonder how that would work with this stomach of mine which suffers from gastric reflux..

I fast every day 16hours and have 8hour eating window in which i eat all my 1200cal for the day. So i eat from 9.30am till 5.30pm and set my meals at 9.30am breakfast, 12.30 lunch 5.00 dinner every day and the rest of the time i fast.
I have found that by fasting i no longer feel the need to snack at night as i am fasting.

Unknown

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LdyGeko

I do one to two 24-hour fasts each week, usually Monday or Tuesday and then again on Thursday or Friday. I eat dinner the night before and then don't eat again until dinner the next day. My main goal is to maintain my weight right now, and that's working wonderfully for me... In fact, today is a fast day for me. Had a really great dinner last night and will have another one tonight!

PERFECT_YOU

http://1b3a4xmisk1smy7qmanlvr9o58.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=IM

rileysowner

A fast day for me today as well. Speaking of which I need to make up a big pitcher of green tea. I love drinking iced green tea on my fast days in the summer.

chrisdavey

These are my estimates for varying goals using lean gains method.

Lose weight:
workout days: maintenance
non workout days: -20%

Recomp:
workout days: +20%
non workout days: -20%

Gain:
workout days: +50%
non workout days: maintenance

%'s will obviously differ depending on your current BF% ie. someone with minimal fat to lose should have a smaller deficit that someone who has a lot to lose.

mideon_696

im doing the 16/8 leangains thing.

i eat all my calories. lol. atleast i try and go close!
8 hours is plenty of time to do it!

first two meals today (pre workout), are around 550 cals each. then after smashing myself, i'll down a shake, relax a bit, and smash another 800-1000 calories, lol.

DaddyMantz

Here is my feedback from three weeks of Leangains 16/8:

Trying hard to gain weight and have succeeded in putting on an extra 9 pounds. About half fat and half muscle. On the positive side: My neck is bigger (1/2 inch), my hips and thighs are bigger (1.5 and 1 inch). My lifting is very strong and I am not close to plateauing on any of my lifts. My Lean Body Mass is at an alltime lifetime high. 153. For some reason, I find it MUCH easier to eat a lot of calories on this diet. Maybe because I worry less about how much and how often I eat.

Negatives: Belly gained 1.5 inches at the belly button. 1 inch below my BB. and no gain at my pantsline. Therefore all my "skinny pants" still fit perfectly. Maybe even a little better and my belt is on the same notch. You can still see all six of my abs but they are a little less defined. I think I can work that off. This is because I have been in a large calorie surplus almost every day of the three weeks.

Biggest negative: On M, W, F I lift from 845 to 10am with only BCAA's in my belly. The lifting is fine. However, I do Krav Maga which is an intense hour long workout at 1215pm. When I do that without eating, I always feel lethargic during class and I think about food all class. My fix is to break the fast with a HUGE meal at 10am. It is digested before the Krav class and I feel like a Million Bucks during class.

I don't know if the shorter fast hurts the overall goal of Leangains but I would rather have a great workout.

Any thoughts?

stroken96

What is IF? Sounds like it would help me out. Please let me know where to find out. Thank you

Huskeryogi

What is IF? Sounds like it would help me out. Please let me know where to find out. Thank you

IF is intermittent fasting. There are several ways to do it. I'm using the daily 16 hour fast with an 8 hour feeding window advocated on www.leangains.com.

Others do 1-2 longer fasts per week - usually 24-36hrs. www.bradpilon.com


Honestly if you just google intermittent fasting there are several blogs With information.

rileysowner

Here is a good article I just became aware of on IF http://www.thefatlossninja.com/2011/06/27/the-truth-about-intermittent-fasting-and-how-to-do-it/

westcoastSW

Bumping to read the thread later

sunnycam

I never knew this all existed till I stumbled upon this thread! I need to read up more on the different methodologies, but would like to join so I can learn from all your experiences! Seems like so many of you are successful with this and happy with the results!

I was on the HCG diet and in maintenance I do "Steak Days" as correction days when I've gain more than I should have. It seems similar to what people are doing here: I fast all day until dinner time when I have a huge Steak and an Apple. I still don't understand how it works, but it does. I just struggle with what to do the next day or so in terms of eating because my weight is very sensitive to what I eat and will fluctuate dramatically if I am not careful. Any suggestions?

What happens when you hit your goal weight? What does maintance look like?

Thanks!

LdyGeko

Hi, Sunnycam!

I have also done the HCG diet, three rounds, lost over 50 pounds so far. I've been in P3/4 now for 8 weeks, and I've been using the Eat-Stop-Eat method of IF two days a week, regardless of whether my weight has fluctuated or not and I have been completely rock solid on my weight for 8 weeks, eating whatever I want - reaching my BMR most days. I start another round next week, a 30-day round, so will probably not be doing any IF during that time. Dunno, though, might try it now and then to see how it goes. The ESE info can be found at www.bradpilon.com, I think....

Following the ESE method, two days a week, I have a nice big dinner, and then not eat again until dinner the next day, making sure to get in plenty of fluids, and it's working great for me! Another method of IF is Lean Gains, which I believe is eating your daily calories in a certain window of time each day, say noon to 5 p.m., or something. You can check it out at www.leangains.com.

I never knew this all existed till I stumbled upon this thread! I need to read up more on the different methodologies, but would like to join so I can learn from all your experiences! Seems like so many of you are successful with this and happy with the results!

I was on the HCG diet and in maintenance I do "Steak Days" as correction days when I've gain more than I should have. It seems similar to what people are doing here: I fast all day until dinner time when I have a huge Steak and an Apple. I still don't understand how it works, but it does. I just struggle with what to do the next day or so in terms of eating because my weight is very sensitive to what I eat and will fluctuate dramatically if I am not careful. Any suggestions?

What happens when you hit your goal weight? What does maintance look like?

Thanks!