Fasting

mfpcopine

I was exercsing every day...the past several months, i am lucky if i do it 3-4 days a week.

1200 cals is when i was strict with myself and THAT is when i lost the weight...since not holding myself accountable i see a very minimal loss or no loss at all. And NOW it has resorted to the binge eating at night.

I have just let myself go...I am not being strict, i am not holding myself accountable AND no matter how much I say the next day is going to be different it hasn't been. AGAIN, I say that I was hoping to use this as a reset, a do over, a start fresh.

Buy some delicious, fragrant herbal or green tea. Have good water around if your tap water isn't good; cut up some lemons, etc. if you want to flavor the water. After you eat dinner, don't eat again for 12 to 14 hours. Have some coffee with a little bit of dairy if you need it. At the end, have a healthy, pleasant meal within your calorie limit.

Reset accomplished.

beckywilkeherbst

[/quote]
That's not true. People do it for many reasons, but one benefit of fasting is gaining more control over one's relationship with food. Some people eat because they have a deep-seated fear that somehow food will disappear. Some people have no sense of what they're eating. Going through a cycle of not eating and understanding it won't kill you -- that even hunger pangs can be endured -- is very empowering for many people.

For others, it's easier not to have to think about eating choices all day long. They consume their calories during a set window during the day or fast for 24 hours once or twice a week.

No one doing IF is trying to starve himself or herself.
[/quote]

Thank you...I am not trying to starve myself...you said it perfectly...i am trying to gain control and start over fresh...i was looking to find out if people had a postive or negative result on the scale after a 24 hour fast.

beckywilkeherbst

Buy some delicious, fragrant herbal or green tea. Have good water around if your tap water isn't good; cut up some lemons, etc. if you want to flavor the water. After you eat dinner, don't eat again for 12 to 14 hours. Have some coffee with a little bit of dairy if you need it. At the end, have a healthy, pleasant meal within your calorie limit.

Reset accomplished.

Very helpful...Thank you so much! Do you mind me asking if you have tried this and if you weighed if there was a postive or negative result because of the fast? I plan on weighing tomorrow and feel it will be counterproductive to my reset if I see a positive number tomm when I weigh in. :-) Thanks

coconutty420

It may sound silly but I give myself positive "punishments" (lack of a better word) for any binging. If I am going to eat a cookie and not log it I must drop and do 20 military style (which I can barely do) before I eat it....it might not matter for one cookie but being sore n tired keeps me from going back for cookie #3 or #4! And it really works when in public....co-workers look at u funny when u drop n do 20 before reaching for a doughnut hole in the break room! Lol! Often times I think twice because of the company I am in...or I don't want to have to explain it to someone. Sometimes at night I will force myself to drink a big bottle of water before I do any snacking....after the water bloat I tend to not want to stuff anything else into my stomach....n sometimes my desire to snack was more out of dehydration and the feeling passes. I think the most important thing is to listen to your body....eating 1200 calories worked for you before but u may need to change things up n your body is pushing u towards it....mayb upping your cals by 100 or 200 on the right stuff is what u need right now....esp if you are working out everyday. Mayb giv it a try for a week or so. With that said I fast reglarly....1 to 2 times a week and love it! I have just started drinking water with lemon n cayenne as a cleanse during my fast n crave it when I am not (tought it sounded gross before I tried it). Going into a fast I try to eat high protien and lower carbs (right carbs from fruit n veg is preferrable) and I find I do not get hungry dUring the fast because I don't have the low blood sugar feelings. Good luck! If you have any more questions send me a mssg and I will help if I can!

duetwithjosh

Very helpful...Thank you so much! Do you mind me asking if you have tried this and if you weighed if there was a postive or negative result because of the fast? I plan on weighing tomorrow and feel it will be counterproductive to my reset if I see a positive number tomm when I weigh in. :-) Thanks

I'm not the person you asked, but I typically see about a half pound of fat loss after my fast days. (The scale is even lower immediately after breaking my fast, but some of that seems to be water weight... so I wait until the day after to weigh in.)

mfpcopine

Buy some delicious, fragrant herbal or green tea. Have good water around if your tap water isn't good; cut up some lemons, etc. if you want to flavor the water. After you eat dinner, don't eat again for 12 to 14 hours. Have some coffee with a little bit of dairy if you need it. At the end, have a healthy, pleasant meal within your calorie limit.

Reset accomplished.

Very helpful...Thank you so much! Do you mind me asking if you have tried this and if you weighed if there was a postive or negative result because of the fast? I plan on weighing tomorrow and feel it will be counterproductive to my reset if I see a positive number tomm when I weigh in. :-) Thanks

I've been easing into it, just doing a 14-hour fast several times a week. My weight has gone up and down, but when it went up I think it was because I ate too many calories. I'm in a place right now (slow metabolism, little weight to lose, recovering from an injury) that provides me with very little wiggle room and I think that MFP's 1,200 calories recommendation is too high for me.

The fact that some people do gain weight for a bit but continue shows that they're not doing IF just as a quick-loss method. It's an approach that they like.

Do you have a way of measuring your body fat %? That can help.

I'm certain I could do a 24-hour fast, but I'm taking the unusual approach of trying this out in a gradual manner. Usually I like the intensity of doing something more extreme, but I have enough stressors now.

mfpcopine

Very helpful...Thank you so much! Do you mind me asking if you have tried this and if you weighed if there was a postive or negative result because of the fast? I plan on weighing tomorrow and feel it will be counterproductive to my reset if I see a positive number tomm when I weigh in. :-) Thanks

I'm not the person you asked, but I typically see about a half pound of fat loss after my fast days. (The scale is even lower immediately after breaking my fast, but some of that seems to be water weight... so I wait until the day after to weigh in.)

One hopes that if she tries this her experience will be like yours. I understand why she wants a boost.

practically

I heard of a book called "eat stop eat" it is all about fasting 1 or 2 days a week. I haven't read it, am interested to see if anyone else has?

mfpcopine

I heard of a book called "eat stop eat" it is all about fasting 1 or 2 days a week. I haven't read it, am interested to see if anyone else has?

It's a popular book. The author is Brad Pillon. People discuss it in the IF group. I haven't read it yet, but have read the Fast 5 book, which is a free download. There are many approaches and I'm trying not to get overwhelmed.

practically

I've never heard of fasting just 1 or 2 days before. I will look up the Fast 5 book. Thanks!

crisanderson27

I heard of a book called "eat stop eat" it is all about fasting 1 or 2 days a week. I haven't read it, am interested to see if anyone else has?

It's a great book, it explained why when I was on a 6wk plateau, then got sick (incredibly...along with my kids)...then through sheer exhaustion started eating fast food again (easier to drive to Taco Bell than drive to the grocery store to shop for an hour) in a huge calories once a day format...I lost almost 14lbs in 2wks...and hit my target goal (another 6lbs), within the next 2wks.

IF is a VERY useful tool...but it's not a cure all. Also...it requires self control to properly execute. I use something like the leangains approace 5 days a week, and then on the weekends I eat when I like. Interestingly (but not unusually), my hunger on the weekend follows my typical schedule of eating (2-4pm/8-10pm)...so most weeks it's a 7 day thing. I just like being able to cook breakfast for the kids, or go out to breakfast with my family with no restriction. This doesn't happen on weekdays.

Very helpful...Thank you so much! Do you mind me asking if you have tried this and if you weighed if there was a postive or negative result because of the fast? I plan on weighing tomorrow and feel it will be counterproductive to my reset if I see a positive number tomm when I weigh in. :-) Thanks

I will be honest, your fixation on your scale, and IF...aren't really compatible. If you can't stay off the scale when you know you're going to have a problem...you won't be able to control your eating after 14, 16, 18, or 20hrs of fasting (much less the 24hrs recommended in ESE). Work on your self control, and then think about IF. Unless you believe that you can use one to subdue the other. Just remember, all the IF in the world isn't going to do you any good if you binge after.

Good luck!

chris1816

Intermittent fasting is not bad at all, in fact very good for you.

There is no starvation mode, unless you happen to be in a North Korean work camp (in which case gtfo the internet and go back to work).

If you have a ton of excess body fat you will be perfectly fine on a fast, and if you binge after it is called "complete lack of self control" not "negative effects of fasting."

The recommendation of eating six small meals a day is not a recommendation based off any health findings but to keep you from being "hungry" and going to "Whataburger"

cocothetiger

Fasting is not healthy. I've done fasting for good causes (to win money for poor people in Le Caire and for mentally ill people in central Africa). They were 47 hours long. But even if you do not have a binge after that and you still eat healthy food, you'll gain weight. How? For a long time, your body will take its energy from your fat to stay active. When you start eating again, your body will be craving food and make twice reserve of fat as if it was ready to go back to fasting mode. That's what my nutritionist told me. Seriously, don't fast. It's not good for your body and even if it's somehow good for your willpower/self-control, I am sure there is other way to do that (like meditating, for example).

Priincess_Natalie

I don't generally fast on purpose but I do end up fasting for 12-18 hours a few times a week. Very rarely I'll hit 24 hours. You can look at my pictures as proof that you don't go into starvation mode or anything crazy like that. If you need to fast for a day, it won't hurt you. If you feel like it can keep you from binge eating then why not? Trust yourself. This is your journey, not anyone elses. If you start to get a headache try drinking some more water and if water doesn't fix it, it's time to eat whether you've fasted as long as you wanted or not. Good luck

chris1816

Fasting is not healthy. I've done fasting for good causes (to win money for poor people in Le Caire and for mentally ill people in central Africa). They were 47 hours long. But even if you do not have a binge after that and you still eat healthy food, you'll gain weight. How? For a long time, your body will take its energy from your fat to stay active. When you start eating again, your body will be craving food and make twice reserve of fat as if it was ready to go back to fasting mode. That's what my nutritionist told me. Seriously, don't fast. It's not good for your body and even if it's somehow good for your willpower/self-control, I am sure there is other way to do that (like meditating, for example).

Complete and utter conjecture sauce on a steak seasoned with fairytales and grilled in Narnia.

delilah47

I agree with beckywilkeher, it could trigger a day (or two or three) of binging. Try making your food plan for a whole day, the day before. I do this, then keep as many extra calories for evening snacks (that's when I am more likely to go off) as possible. If I have been having a particularly hard time, I even make a snack schedule with actual times and the food on it so I can follow and not eat everything before the evening is over.

Mguilmot

You really want to lose weight ? It's pretty simple. Two simple rules to live by:
1) Eat right
2) MOVE YOUR *kitten*
No need to fast. You can even eat a WHOLE LOT without having to be hungry at all. There are loads of foods you can have tons of that hardly have any calories. It's just a mindset. It's tough the first 3-4 weeks to get used to it, but once you're past that first block it all gets easier. I have lost tones of weight, and a lot of people on this site have done so too, without fasting for a single day.
You can do it too, but it takes a lot of dedication. Don't give in when you "want" the bad stuff. You can have some in moderation, but it has to stay "moderation" and not 600 kcal every single day ;-)
Don't worry when you have a bad day every once in a while. I have one every single week. Some weeks I have 2 or 3 of them. Still lost 90 pounds, with the bad days :-)

LizKurz

Does anyone have any experience with this? I am thinking of fasting today and not sure the do's and don't and if it wil yield negative/positive results tomorrow.
I had a horrible week food wise. To the point I consumed roughly 600 calories after 8:30 p.m. last night and that was only last night's negatives.
I have been struggling the last few weeks/month with poor losses and am beginning to feel very defeated. Yet, every time I tell myself the next week is going to be different, it is not. I am giving in to temptation left and right and allowing myself to take bites of peanut butter from the jar and not logging it, etc, etc. You get the point.
If I see a gain tomorrow, I know this will throw me further into a tailspin. I am grasping at straws here. I am not delusianal, i know this isn't a cure all. I just feel like i need a reset and this could be it. I don't plan on doing it more than 24 hours, or regularly, or anythign like that...just today.
Thanks in advance for your help.

I haven't read all the posts yet, forgive me if I repeat something.

Firstly, don't weigh tomorrow. Just skip it for another week. Secondly, one thing I heavily suggest is stop thinking so much in the future. Start worrying about your next meal only. Use all your willpower to make the next meal healthy. Then, after that, you can start worrying about the meal after that. Wake up each day with a 'tude not of "this week will be better" but "breakfast today is going to be healthy and within my cal range."

Sometimes, we get so caught up in the future of losing weight we can't see the forest for the trees.

LizKurz

Very helpful...Thank you so much! Do you mind me asking if you have tried this and if you weighed if there was a postive or negative result because of the fast? I plan on weighing tomorrow and feel it will be counterproductive to my reset if I see a positive number tomm when I weigh in. :-) Thanks

I'm not the person you asked, but I typically see about a half pound of fat loss after my fast days. (The scale is even lower immediately after breaking my fast, but some of that seems to be water weight... so I wait until the day after to weigh in.)

I just wanted to say to the op, this guy here? Hes the one you need to listen to on fasting. I've seen several of his posts around the site and hes done extensive research on fasting and has implemented much of it. As a religious person, I fast on occasion for religious reasons, but all too often, people do fasts hoping for overnight astronomical weight loss and don't do it properly. There is a way to fuel your body extra efficiently the days prior heavy on the nutrients and vitamins, and work up to long fasts very slowly. Talk to this guy here, he knows his stuff.

crisanderson27

Fasting is not healthy. I've done fasting for good causes (to win money for poor people in Le Caire and for mentally ill people in central Africa). They were 47 hours long. But even if you do not have a binge after that and you still eat healthy food, you'll gain weight. How? For a long time, your body will take its energy from your fat to stay active. When you start eating again, your body will be craving food and make twice reserve of fat as if it was ready to go back to fasting mode. That's what my nutritionist told me. Seriously, don't fast. It's not good for your body and even if it's somehow good for your willpower/self-control, I am sure there is other way to do that (like meditating, for example).

Complete and utter conjecture sauce on a steak seasoned with fairytales and grilled in Narnia.

Or, more simply put....

Total BS.

Sorry, but your body has two states, fed...and fasted. Fed...it's processing food that's in your stomach etc. Fasted...your system is basically empty. The time frame from one to the other is about 14hrs and on if I recall correctly (been awhile since I've read the basic documentation). The hormonal difference between the two is pretty incredible...and highly benificial in the first 24hrs, with most of the benifits coming after 16hrs. After 24hrs the benifits rapidly level off however...which is why most of us rarely fast beyond one day. Benifits include increased alertness, strength, energy, mental acuity...the list goes on. It has also been proven to increase the oxidation of fat stores. It does these things through spiking growth hormone, adrenaline production, and other mechanisms.

The negatives? Well...you're hungry, to an extent. For me...I don't even notice. If you're a basically inactive stay at home mom, with a cupboard full of twinkies...IF is going to be very difficult for you. If you're the type to go to the park, run errands, and otherwise stay busy all day...you'll likely have real success with it.

Your body will NOT even CONSIDER going into 'starvation mode' and slowing your metabolism inside of 72hrs with little or no caloric intake. This has been proven by study after study after study. ALONG WITH THE REST OF WHAT I SAID.

So again. Total BS.